A galaxy away
by James Whitley
Summary: The Federation is under attack from a neighboring galaxy. Commonality between species does not exist. A forth particle unknown to our galaxy gives rise to 2000 elements. And a malevolent enemy and has reason to want the human race exterminated.


**A galaxy away.**

**Chapter 1: You are nowhere near your own galaxy.**

"Red Alert!" shouts the captain of the federation starship Hera. The ship is caught in a river of light and out of control. Pulses of energy bounce off the hull. The bridge shakes violently. Conduits explode in showers of sparks, and the crew tries to understand what is happening.

"Captain, we're caught in a wormhole… I think," shouts a helmsman.

"You think? What the hell does that mean?" comes her reply.

"The phenomenon's quantum and temporal signatures are erratic," replies a Vulcan science officer.

"Captain!" calls the helmsmen as he look to the view screen. Coming up fast is the other side. The ship is shot back into normal space with such force that the right nacelle is torn off like ripping a branch from a tree. As the ship rolls though space, haul plating starts to tear off. Control thrusters fire around the ship to regain control. On the bridge, the computer announces, "Warning! Warp core breach in 12 seconds."

"Engineering, can you save the core?" the captain calls down to engineering.

"Negative! The support reactor is gone and safety systems are failing, I'm ejecting the core!" yells the chief engineer. He keys in the commands and the damaged warp core begins to descend though the floor.

"Captain!" calls the helmsman motioning to the view screen. She stands up with a fearful look upon her face.

"Oh, damn…" she says with a grim tone. On the view screen are two fleets of war ships engaged in fierce combat. One style of ship has no curves, while the other is nothing but curved surfaces. A shimmering white tone seems to slide across the skin of the ships with all flat surfaces while crimson red capes the others. The lead white ship is firing energy cannons that send shockwaves through space.

"My god, they're huge!" claims the tactical officer.

"Elaborate," orders the captain.

"The largest one is 14 kilometers in length," replies tactical.

"Do they know we are here?" ask the captain. Before her crew had a chance to respond, the ejected warp core exploded and rocked the ship.

As the shaken crew returned to their stations, the tactical office looked at his display, and responds, "They do now."

Two smaller ships on the red side break off from the battle and streak toward the crippled federation ship with frightening speed. Before the crew can react, the lead ship is upon them and firing. Two blue blasts from an unknown weapon burst out from blue panels on the nose of the enemy fighter and they rip down the sides of the ship. The shields give no protection. On the bridge, the crew is in mid air from the impact when a red flash of light fills the room. A split second later, the bridge crew find themselves falling to the floor in a giant room on one of the alien ships. The rest of the crew has been transported into the same room as well. In this room, it looks like they are in a glass box atop a massive ship. Along the walls and the ceiling are images of the battle raging outside.

The captain takes a quick survey of her crew and notices an officer missing the right side of her uniform and the other side is covered in blood and scorch marks. The leading edge of her uniform that has been vaporized curves as if a huge circle sheared off half her body, starting at the right shoulder and moving down to her knee. However, her body had instantly been restored. As crew members start to gather around her, the Captain rushes over and asks, "Are you OK!?" The officer is still in a state of shock and is feeling the exposed parts of her body, not convinced they are really there. The captain looks around to other crew members and notices some of them have burns, rips, and holes to indicate shrapnel damage in their uniforms, but none of them seem to be hurt. She then catches a glimpse of her ship disintegrating as the two attacking ships head back in their direction. Moving fast they fire toward the ship they are on. But before the energy blast reaches them, it explodes like a paint ball hitting a window.

"At least we know we're on a white ship," explains the captain.

"Captain, over there" a crewmember says as he points to another wall. Three massive ships on the red side have broken though the defenses of the white ships. As they close in, two break off as if attempting to avoid something. Then, out of nowhere, two spheres of blue light with energy discharges bouncing across their surfaces streak toward the ships that are breaking off. The first sphere hits and explodes into blue fire like none other and consumes the ship instantly. The second sphere hits the back of its target as the ship tries to evade. As it explodes, the flames, alive and hateful, shoot across the surface of the ship. The third larger ship aligns to do battle with the one that unleashed those fiery predators.

Slowing out of light speed, a gigantic white ship begins to open fire. Yellow pulses of energy exploding from huge cannons mounted on both sides of the white ships violently rip into the countering red ship. The ship the federation crew is aboard also slides out of the way and aligns to fire upon the red ship. The white ship moves at an astonishing speed, especially given its monstrous size.

Both white ships now fire on the red ship. Weakened from battle, the red ship begins to break apart, disintegrating with continued blows from both white ships. The remaining ships in the red fleet begin to break off and retreat. "Captain," calls the Vulcan Science Officer, "I've been able to take a scan of this room."

"And?" the captain asks.

After consulting his tri-corder, the puzzled Vulcan replies, "The walls, ceiling, and floor are made from a substance that could not possibly exist."

The captain looks at the floor and then at the walls. "My senses would seem to disagree."

"If these readings are correct, then there exists a fourth particle of matter we do not know about," he responds.

"What?" she says with disbelief. Just then, two doors recess into the wall, sliding open as the images on the walls and ceiling fade. In walk two tall, thin aliens. The aliens are quadrupeds. Atop their short four legs are long, thin trunks. Almost to their heads jet out to very long arms that bend in the center; so long are these arms that if they were straightened, would drag on the ground. At the end of each arm is a hand with three fingers. Their heads are a flat oval shape sloped back. Their features are of a reptilian influence, with dark green skin and golden eyes; they are like nothing the Federation has ever seen before. A simple vest decorated with strange symbols is the only clothing they wear. As they approach, one opens his arms and begins to speak. "Nevlisk almirsh triv-si-ta."

The captain, not comprehending, leans over to her Science Officer and says, "Did you catch that?"

"No" he replies. "It would seem that the universal translator cannot identify the language."

"We don't understand," the captain replies while shaking her head.

"Can you understand us?" she adds.

The alien nods his head in confirmation.

The captain then asks, "Can you tell us where we are?"

Just then, the red flash of the alien's transporter grabs everyone's attention. In mid stride, a human male appears before them while walking directly toward the captain. In a hostile tone, he shouts, "You are nowhere near your own galaxy!" He stands six foot tall with pitch-black hair and very light skin. His brow is low; his eyes are that of a mad man. He looks evil. He is adorned in a black trench coat with small dark red triangles at the bottom. With gun belts strapped to both legs, he can only be one thing, a warrior. His look is menacing to the on looking federation crew. A shiver runs down their spines as he approaches. He stops right in front of the captain, next to the alien.

The crew tries to decide if he intends to harm them or if he's a friend. Something in his eyes tells the Captain that the Federation arrival has unpleasant repercussions. He then looks at one of the aliens and says, "Te-farsh acure."

"Sei' ha-le tia," the alien replies, turns, and heads for the door. The accent of the man matches that of the aliens, indicating he's been with them for some time.

The Vulcan Science Officer leans over and whispers to the Captain, "When he spoke before, it was English, not a translation."

"But how?" the captain asks.

The man turns and looks directly at the captain and says in an animalistic voice, "You've fallen into a conflict that is not your own, but with an enemy who knows what you are." He draws nearer and adds, "And they don't like humans."

Two years later…

"Report," commands Worf on the bridge of the Enterprise.

"Sensors cannot penetrate the object," replies the ensign at Ops.

Captain Picard steps though the turbo lift doors and says, "Worf, has the object made any attempt to hale us?"

"No sir," Worf replies as the captain walks toward the view screen. "It is too small to be a shuttle or a life pod, a probe most likely."

Picard looks at the small sphere on the view screen. It is a simple design, a chrome sphere with two short spikes coming out of each side. "Has it made any movement toward us?"

"Yes," Worf replies. "It stopped as soon as we attempted to scan it, and then moved toward us and stopped 40,000km off our port side."

"Ensign, is it scanning us?" Picard asks.

The ensign, pecking away at the console replies, "I don't know, it's just sitting there. No energy emissions or movement detected."

Picard looks at the probe on the view screen. He thinks for a second and asks, "Is it safe to bring aboard?"

"I believe so," the ensign replies.

Picard then orders, "Lock a tractor beam on it and bring it in to Shuttle Bay 2."

"Yes sir," the ensign replies. Outside, a tractor beam hits the probe and the probe instantly vaporizes.

"What happened?" Worf inquires.

"I'm not sure," comes the reply. "It just disappeared, as soon as the beam hit it," continues the ensign.

Picard looks at the view screen and asks, "Any indication where it went?"

"No sir," the ensign replies as he scans, "All scans negative."

Worf adds, "Perhaps it was a self destruct."

Picard nods and says, "Very well. Launch a probe and leave it here in case any more of them come this way."

"Aye, sir," replies Worf.

Picard then orders, "Helm, set course for Starbase 17, Warp Six."

"Aye, sir," comes the reply.

Picard turns to Worf and says, "We don't want to keep Captain Riker waiting too long." As Picard takes a seat, he thinks aloud, "I wonder were that probe came from?"

**Chapter 2: The federation is only a galaxy away.**

In another part of the universe, an alien fleet of ships heads for a space station orbiting a very large planet. The ships appear to have major battle damage, except for one. This ship takes the lead as the others fall back. The ship is shaped like the end of a two pronged fork. At the main bulk, two long sections jet out from the base and taper all the way to the front. The sections are spaced apart, and a massive curved window is at the center of the ship. At the end, two narrow wings jet out perpendicular to the ship. On the bottom, two wings angle out toward the sides and two short wings toward the center. This ship, like the others, appears to have no curved edges except for the massive curved window spanning the two forward swept sections. As it draws near, the space station takes shape. It's a colossal structure the size of a moon. Six extremely long four-sided pyramids join at its center, which is an enormous box with tapered corners. The ship is now tiny in comparison to the station. The walls of the station start to open, doors you could not even tell were there before. As the ship enters the station, it passes from empty space into air. The mechanism by which the air is kept inside is not revealed by the ship passing though. The ship passes over hundreds of other ships that vary in size and construction. Moving towards the side of the bay, the wall seems to grow a landing platform. The landing platform jets out from the wall as the ship maneuvers around and extends its landing gear. The movement is completely silent; only the air being pushed aside and background noise can be heard. While touching down, a ramp begins to extend from the bottom and forms stairs. Out walks the same human from the encounter with the federation crew two years earlier. His appearance is much friendlier than before, but still that of a man on edge.

"Nel res ha Cain," says an alien come to meet him. The translation, "It is good that you have returned Cain".

"Te les atayan," the human responds. Translation: "Good to be back." Cain looks around and heads toward the hall saying, "I see the station is almost complete."

The alien follows him and states, "The emperor and Sara need to see you on the command deck."

Cain looks back and asks, "Any idea as to why?"

"The Bozcomb are in a place they shouldn't be," replies the alien as he motions to the turbo lift. The two walk into the turbo lift.

Exiting the turbo lift in the command room on the station, Cain is greeted by a human female, Sara Knight. She is an exceptional beauty with long, wavy, light brown hair. She walks over to Cain and embraces him. The two hold each other like they've not held each other in a long while.

After a few seconds, she says, "A hologram is not the same."

To this, Cain replies, "I've missed you too."

As they separate, she asks, "So how does the prototype work?"

"Unbelievable," Cain responds. "Its maneuverability makes it untouchable."

"It is unfortunate that only humans can pilot a ship of that nature," says an Etherian adorned in royal clothing. His vest is a shimmering purple with a silver sash draped across his shoulder. A dark green cape flows off his shoulders to the floor. He is the Emperor of Etheria.

Sara looks at the emperor, then turns to Cain and says, "All simulations with Etherians at the controls have been unsatisfactory."

"The ES factor?" Cain replies.

"Yes," answers Sara.

"Most of the other humans are in key positions we can't afford to replace," comments Cain.

The emperor says, "We are currently winning the war. Perhaps now we can send a ship to recruit some humans from Earth."

Cain replies, "It's too high of a risk. The Bozcomb still control sectors close to the link. If they manage to track a ship through it, we may quickly be losing this war."

Sara adds, "To train federation officers to fly Wolf class cruiser as opposed to their current ship design would involve too much time."

"I understand," the emperor says. Then he adds, "Cain, I want your opinion on something." The three enter a room adjacent to the command center. "Display Terzarc sector briefing," the Emperor commands to an empty room. The lights in the room dim and a hologram of a solar system appears. The three now appear to be walking though space. The room then zooms into a planet and further still to a base on its surface.

"It's a rock in space," Sara says. "The pulsar it orbits emits a great deal of sensor interference and renders transporters useless, but what we've got here is a research base."

"This close to a pulsar would blind their long range sensors," Cain says.

Emperor Rieaze replies, "That is where the puzzle starts. The Bozcomb consider detection of incoming ships to be the most critical aspect in establishing a defense."

"They could be altering their strategies, hiding where we would not expect to find them," Cain says.

"I think they are looking for something we don't see," Sara adds.

"Why is that?" Cain asks.

Sara hits a holographic button on a keypad hanging in mid air. The hologram changes into a layout of the base and zooms in on a hexagon-shaped dish. "They are making intensive sensor sweeps of the pulsar," Sara says.

"Weapons research?" Cain inquires.

"None that I can foresee. Our ships are impervious to any radiation or energy a pulsar emits," Sara replies.

"And they know that," Cain says.

Rieaze jumps in and says, "We've been unable to determine any motive the Bozcomb would have for being there."

Cain scrutinizes the data and replies, "Sara is correct, they're looking for something. And when the Bozcomb look for something, it's never in our best interest."

The emperor nods his head and says, "How would you suggest handling this?"

On the Enterprise, Picard and Worf enter a transporter room. The transporter operator says, "Captain Riker and his wife are ready to beam aboard."

"Energize," orders Picard. On the pads Riker and Deanna materialize. "Welcome back! It's been too long," says Picard with a smile as his arms open. Riker and Deanna both smile as they step off the transporter platform.

Riker says, "Indeed it has."

"Let me show you to your quarters," Picard says.

As the party steps out of the room and into the hall, Deanna says, "I promised some of my old patients I would come see them."

"Oh?" Picard says, "Doesn't seem like much of a vacation."

Deanna smiles, then adds, "The most stable officers are assigned to the Enterprise. Trust me, this is a vacation." She starts walking away and says, "I'll catch up with you later."

Riker smiles at her and asks Picard, "So, has anything interesting happened lately?"

As they walk down the hall, Picard says, "Well actually, we did run into an alien probe yesterday."

"From where?" Riker asks. "We're not sure. Its reverse course before it turned to intercept us leads out of federation space. The first one to detect it was a relay station in the Tarvis system," Picard says.

"What happened to it?" Riker asks.

Picard looks at Worf, who says, "I believe it self-destructed when we attempted to bring it aboard."

"We are going to follow its reverse course back a little way to see if we can find out who sent it," Picard adds.

"How far?" Riker inquires.

Picard smiles and says, "How long are you on vacation?"

Cain's ship decelerates from faster than light speed and rapidly approaches the planet. Its shimmering surface is actually stealth technology. The undetected ship assumes a high orbit on the other side of the planet in relation to the base. The bridge of the Starwolf is seemingly void of anything. Then, as Cain walks toward the center of the bridge, a table comes up from the floor as if the ship knows what he wants. A holographic image of the target area displays.

"There are a few more ships here than in the recon scans," Cain says.

A voice fills the room from an unseen entity that says, "Seven heavy attack cruisers, nine fighters, and two science ships."

Cain replies, "Their shields cannot be activated this close to the pulsar, you and the Starwolf can handle them." Cain then examines the layout of the complex and asks, "What are the bases defensive capabilities?"

The voice, a sentient computer named Kit, responds, "Forty-two cannons, 17 SAM launchers." As he speaks, holographic pin-points identify the locations.

Cain responds, "Those need to be naturalized. Can we overload the backups?"

The hologram changes to a more localized section of the base containing a reactor core. Kit answers, "Destroy the power regulators the moment the weapons platform is drawing full power."

"Program a drone accordingly; I'll pilot the IC7 here," Cain replies while pointing to a spot toward the back of the room. He then walks over to a weapons arsenal embedded in the wall. He picks up a long arm ban and places it on his right arm. The bands extend around his arm and soft white light illuminates the front. Then several white flashes appear around him, placing different weapons on his person and an auxiliary armband on his left arm. Loaded with weapons, Cain starts to leave the bridge and says, "And Kit, watch for the unexpected."

"I will," replies Kit.

Cain then heads down a hall to a room which contains a single small craft. He climbs the delta-winged craft and presses a few buttons. A canopy materializes around him; the landing gear folds up as the shuttle begins to hover. The shuttle then drops though the floor via phasing technology. Cain descends toward the surface at high speed. The shuttlecraft pierces the ground and phases through the planet into the base at the other side. With uncanny accuracy and stealth, the shuttle rises into the lower level of the power station. The canopy disappears, and Cain exits the craft.

He already knows where the guards are as he walks toward the entrance to the reactor room. He remains concealed from the guards by equipment in the room but can clearly see them. His glasses have an x-ray capability. Everything is transparent green while the Bozcomb are seen clearly with no extra visual effects. They have red scaly skin with large black eyes. Their hair looks like thick dreadlocks, and four holes are where the nose would be. Their arms consist of two opposed forearms with three large fingers on each one, jointed to the upper arm. Lastly, the knees bend backward, as opposed to humans. The guards stand against the hallway walls and face each other, allowing them to see anyone coming from any direction. Cain takes two small spheres out of a pouch on his belt. He looks at them, then back at the guards. A crosshair appears on the head of one, then the other. Using his other hand, Cain taps a button on his glasses, triggering the spheres to hover. Reading his line of vision, the spheres direct themselves around the equipment and bury themselves into the heads of the guards**.** Never knowing what hit them, they fell to the ground.

Cain turned and walked back to the IC7. Reaching through the open canopy, he pressed the return button on the command console; the craft's canopy rematerialized and dropped through the floor. After pulling a small box out of his coat, he places it on the floor. After pressing the center of the box, a square recessed into it. Along the edges of the device, a blue light flashed to red and then vanished.

Cain walks down the hall and stealthily approaches a room filled with Bozcomb. He pulls a small cylindrical device from his coat, aligning it alongside the door. The ends of the device shoot beams of light from both ends that extend to the floor and the ceiling. Cain releases the device which hovers and extends a glass-like field that extends from the beam across the door. The holographic wall creates a false illusion to those on the other side of the doorway, completely replicating the hallway as the Bozcomb see it. Cain walks by the door undetected, and the hovering cylinder follows him. After Cain clears the door, the wall generated by the device fades. He grabs the device and the beams of light disappear as he places it back in his coat. He then heads for a turbo shaft and, once inside the lift, keys a device to let Kit know to start the attack. In orbit, the Starwolf rapidly slides around the planet and begins to descend.

Moments later, in the control room of the base, a warning alarm sounds. An officer responds to the alert saying, "Commander, I'm detecting an atmospheric disturbance. It's a ship coming in fast! Its profile is that of Cain's last known ship!"

"Battle stations! Launch all ships!" the commander replies.

"Powering weapons!" another officer shouts. Around the base, energy weapons power up as the Starwolf closes in.

"Fire!" the commander shouts.

Down in the reactor room, the box that Cain placed on the floor uncloaks. Jumping into the air, it simultaneously fires eleven energy pulses in different directions. The pulses hit key power regulation units and control terminals.

"Commander! I'm reading a power surge throughout the weapons grid!" an officer shouts. Numerous explosions rock the base as backup power systems and weapons platforms explode.

Shaken, the base commander shouts, "Cain is in the complex. Find him,"

"Commander, I'm reading dimensional shifting on level nine; it's him," the officer replies. The Bozcomb know that the dimensional shifting is the transporter technology Cain uses to call weapons down from his ship. On level nine, Cain's holds a technologically superior adaptation of a mini-gun. The flash points at the end of the barrels look like the three barrels are firing at once. With a high speed whine, it belts out a seemingly endless supply of projectiles though the enemy forces. However, this projectile weapon does not eject used shells.

As Cain advances down the hall, he passes an intersection where many troops race toward him. Cain extends his left arm and a dimensional shift emanating from the device on his forearm places a compact rocket launcher there. He takes aim down the hall and rapidly fires three rockets. The rockets quickly travel at different speeds, spreading out evenly. As Cain dodges behind the corner, the rockets explode simultaneously causing the ceiling to cave in. Seeing the path is closed, Cain proceeds down the opposite hall.

On the surface, the Starwolf is making strafing runs on the base. As some ships attempt to launch, a yellow energy blast from the main cannons mounted on both side of the Starwolf cut them down. Other weapons on this fast-moving killer include two mini-gun style ion cannons on the bottom, two long crystals mounted on both wing tips, and two six-pack weapons on the nose.

The blast from both the main cannons and the nose emitters explode on impact while delivering a fierce punch. Out of the ion cannons on the bottom come bolts of energy sawed though enemy ships while the crystals send multi-colored steaming energy that disintegrates matter. Within two seconds, most of the ships have been destroyed. At the end of its run, the Starwolf stops, pivoting on a dime as if the ship were immune to the laws of inertia.

"Commander!" an officer shouts, "We've lost contact with the lab."

The commander replies, "Then here is his next target." He turns and motions toward the door. All guards and officers draw weapons and take aim at the turbo lift doors. The weapons are teardrop shaped with the base pointed toward the front designed exclusively to fit the Bozcomb hand. Suddenly, a hail of bullets rips though the floor and tears into the Bozcomb. On the lower level, Cain is able to see his targets though the floor utilizing the transparency setting on his glasses. As the last one falls, Cain steps into the lift. On the command deck, Cain walks out to survey the room. With the bullets coming up though the floor, all the equipment has been left undamaged.

"Kit, status," he calls out on communications.

"All ships on the base have been destroyed. However, I'm getting a faint reading heading for space. I believe it to be an escape pod." Kit replies.

"Meet me on the roof." says Cain as he heads for a staircase. Outside the Starwolf hovers over to the command center as Cain emerges from the roof hatch. The surface of the base has been completely decimated and only the command center remains. The staircase lowers down from the Starwolf as Cain jumps on the first step. A force then seems to both lift and accelerate him into the Starwolf through a few decks to the command deck. Once he lands on the floor, a section of floor generates from the walls and fills the hole. Cain is now on the command deck as the ship starts heading for space. He walks over to the center of the bridge and sits in a chair built into the floor which is flanked by two navigation panels, one on each side, with various other controls on each. As he places his right hand on a glowing half sphere, the arm band shifts away and a small glass disk extends over his wrist. The ship is now in a steep assent as a sphere of white light extends from the top-center. Coming out of the atmosphere, the Starwolf heads for the escape pod.

"We have company." Kit says. "Two Ka-dri class destroyers."

The bridge lights up as holograms fill the room. The ceiling, walls, and even the floor are consumed by holograms as the bridge transforms into a 360-degree view of space around the ship. The holograms superimposed on the image of space range from weapons tracking systems to trajectory mapping and informational readouts.

The Destroyers are shaped like a rounded cube with four long piers jetting out of only the back four corners. Tucked inside the piers and facing inward appear to be partially exposed warp engines. The escape pod reaches the first destroy as a tractor beam locks on. The second one jumps into the lead to engage the Starwolf. Both ships open fire at the same time. The Bozcomb destroy unlashes thunderous bolts of energy but the Starwolf has far superior maneuverability and dodges the weapons fire with extraordinary speed. As the two close in on each other, several direct hits from the Starwolf begin to weaken the shield of the destroyer. The crystal weapons on the wing tips have been firing a continuous beam into the enemy shields to create a rift toward the starboard side. On the bridge of the Starwolf, Cain eyes begin to glow with an electric fire. As the Starwolf closes in, the sphere on top intensifies. The two are close enough now to see that the destroyer is three times the size of the Starwolf. At the last second, the Starwolf changes orientation and slides away toward the rift. The sphere on its top shoots out a bolt of energy into the rift in the shields. The bolt pierces the rift, and forks out into six strikes like lightning. The hits are to shield generators and disable a large section of the shielding. Then, the Starwolf stops and instantly turns to lay full fire into the enemy. The blast from the main cannons punch thought the unprotected haul and out the other side. A few more quick hits and the Bozcomb ship is reduce to a debris field.

"Where is that other ship!?" Cain shouts.

"It cloaked," Kit replies and adds, "I'm picking up a warp signature, but the trail was scattered by the pulsar. I cannot extrapolate a trajectory."

Cain stands up and starts walking toward the center of the bridge. He looks pissed. "It's not like them to run. Kit, head back to the base," he says.

In the command center, Cain accesses the computers. A security wall comes up and Cain says, "The data base is encrypted."

"I'm on it," replies Kit. Moments later, a remote drone enters the room from the roof hatch and hovers above the computer. It shoots a non-damaging beam of blue light into the console. Data then start rapidly moving across the screen.

Cain starts walking toward the door and says, "I'm going to check out the lab, call me when you're in." Several minutes later, Cain is looking though the lab when he discovers something, a federation phazer. He picks it up and looks it over. Then, over communications, he says, "Kit, I have a bad feeling about the reason for this base being here."

"I've just broken the last encryption key, we can now read the database," Kit says.

"Upload the database and isolate it," Cain says, "I'll take a look in a second. Cain reenters the command center and starts viewing the data. Suddenly, his expression changes as he sees what he's looking for. He jumps up and runs up the stairs to the roof and the up the Starwolf's ramp. "Kit, take off! Proceed to sector 609-103, maximum speed!" Cain commands.

Kit replies, "Underway, we'll be at the galactic boundary in 17 minutes." Kit says.

Cain then commands, "Open a link to Sara."

A hologram of Sara appears moments later. She can see in Cain's eyes that the news is not good. "What's wrong," she asks.

Cain replies, "The Bozcomb have discovered the link between Naris and the Milky Way."

"How?" she says in disbelief.

"Kit, send her the data," Cain commands, then adds, "They used the pulsars quantum interference to isolate the universal energy track of the antimatter form the Hera."

Sara looks up from a console displaying the data and says, "I thought that was beyond their understanding."

Cain replies "Not anymore. The federation is only a galaxy away."

**Chapter 3: Assault on the Enterprise.**

Out of a blue cloud marking the boarder of the galaxy appears the Bozcomb destroyer. The bridge of the Bozcomb destroyer is laid out as a half circle joined to a triangle. Along the curved wall making up the front of the room is a giant view screen. The images are not centered as a human would expect, but spread out as if the Bozcomb have no focused point of vision and see everything at once in a 180 degree radius. Along the back wall are Bozcomb setting on unusual looking chairs, they slope forward and have no back, specific to Bozcomb legs. They face a screens curved into the wall and a self runs the length of the wall. This self has keys on both the top and bottom that the Bozcomb's separated, opposing forearms and fingers make use of. Sitting in the center is the commander. The Bozcomb commander orders, "Status report."

An officer replies, "Space media is having a positive effect on engines, weapons and shields are not affected."

"Scan for element 984," the commander orders.

After a few seconds, an officer says, "I have a ship composed of the element heading our way. The crew is mostly human."

"Set a course for it, maximum speed," the commander orders.

On the Enterprise, Riker and Picard are in good sprits as they chat. "Once the Titian's refit is complete, she'll be able to give the Enterprise a run for her money," Riker boast.

Picard answers with, "I don't know about that, Geordi has got the engines running well above normal." Then, an incoming call alert sounds.

The ensign says, "Captain, incoming message from Starfleet." "On screen," Picard orders.

On the screen comes Admiral Janeway. "Captain Picard, we need you to check something out." she says. "

Oh?" Picard curiously inquires.

"Our frontier scanners near the edge of federation space have picked up an anomaly," Janeway states.

"An anomaly?" Picard asks. Janeway continues, "We can't confirm its speed or heading, too far away. But we think it's a ship traveling above warp ten toward federation space."

"Warp ten?" Picard asks surprised.

Janeway continues, "They appear to lie along your current course. You orders are to intercept them as far away as possible and verify there intentions."

Riker jumps in, "At warp 9.5, we can be in range of the anomaly's projected course in 3 hours."

"You'll be out of two way communications range long before then," the admiral states.

"Understood," Picard says.

"Good luck, Janeway out," She replies.

The view screen returns to its normal view of space as Picard turns around and says, "Ensign, lay in course for the anomaly, warp 9." "Course laid-in sir," he replies.

"Engage" Picard orders.

Riker comments, "The probe you were talking about?" "It would appear so," Picard replies. The Enterprise then goes into warp.

Later in engineering, Geordi is working on the B4 android. "B4, can you access the memory ingrams downloaded from Data?" Geordi asks.

The android looks up with a confused look and says, "No."

Captain Picard exits the turbo lift and enters engineering. He walks up and asks, "How's it coming?"

Geordi stands up, sighs, and says, "I've tried implementing a new translation protocol, but his positronic matrix is just too limited to accept Data's information. He has been able to assimilate a few of the simpler subroutines, but that's all."

Over the com link, Riker calls Picard. "Riker to Picard, that anomaly just came into sensor range." Picard asks, "We should still be an hour away, what's its heading?"

"Straight for us," Riker replies. "And Captain, their speed is warp fourteen," Riker adds.

"On my way," Picard says as he walks toward to turbo lift. Minutes later Picard steps onto the bridge and says, "Status."

Riker says, "Sensors are detecting what seems to be the projected pattern of matter they can't identify."

Picard looks at the console for a second, then at Riker. "Hailing frequencies?" Picard asks.

"Nothing," Riker responds.

Picard then starts walking toward his chair. "Yellow alert. Shields up, weapons ready," he orders. Then, with a tap to his communicator, he orders, "Deanna Troi to the bridge," as he takes his seat.

They will be here in 3 minutes." Worf announces.

Riker looks a Picard and ask, "And If their hostile?"

Picard replies with, "We already know we can't out run them. Let's hope they are just in a hurry to make contact."

Three minutes later, the Enterprise answers all stop as the Bozcomb destroyer decelerates from warp while de-cloaking. The Bozcomb cloak just fades out rather than a shimmer, indicating a different kind of cloaking technology. Rapidly advancing, the destroyer opens fire. The first few shots pierce the shields as if they where not even up, ripping down the hull. A few lower powered shots target the nacelles.

"Red Alert!" Picard shouts as the bridge is rocked.

"Captain!" Worf yells. "Shields, weapons, and engines have been disabled!"

The computer then announces, "Intruder alert!"

Riker, looking at his control pad says, "Multiple beam-in points detected!"

Suddenly, three Bozcomb troops transport to the bridge in a blue shimmer. They have a nasal apparatuses placing a tube into each of their four nostrils. This indicates they have a problem with our atmosphere. Worf reaches for his phazer but is struck in the shoulder by a Bozcomb plasma weapon. Wolf spins into a console and goes down. The other two Bozcomb quickly shoot the helmsmen and two other officers. The weapons used by the Bozcomb inflict tremendous damage on the human officers, blowing a hole in the security officer's chest and out the back. The helmsman is decapitated by the blast. The third officer arm is shot off. These weapons seem to do no damage to the wall or control panel they hit after hitting the crewmembers. The Bozcomb that fired on Worf is struck by Riker's phazer, which does little more than get his attention. The Bozcomb takes aim at Riker but is tackled by Picard. They roll around for a second until the Bozcomb gets his footing and throws Picard off. As Picard starts to get back up, another Bozcomb puts a weapon to his head and says, "Surrender your ship, human. Or we will kill everyone!" Picard looks at Riker who has a weapon pointed at him and is forced to capitulate.

At the same time, Bozcomb troops attack engineering. They seem to come out of nowhere, jumping from level to level. Geordie is franticly trying to restore power despite the advancing Bozcomb. Then, the console he is working on explodes, hurling him back into a wall. He is hurt bad as he falls unconsciously to the floor. The B4 android walks toward him in total confusion. He looks around and then is struck in the chest by a Bozcomb weapon. The weapon burns his uniform and sends an electrical discharge running though his body. B4 is slightly stunned but still standing. Then, the Bozcomb fires multiple times to take down the android, hitting him in the head and chest. B4 falls by Geordie's side still short circuiting. The Bozcomb soldier approaches him and looks at the android. He taps his computer bracelet then kneels down and touches B4. The soldier and B4 are then transported off the ship. Another group of soldiers set up a strange device near the warp core.

Back on the bridge, Picard stands up and furious demands, "I am Jean Luke Picard, Captain of the Enterprise! Why have you attacked us?!"

The commanding Bozcomb draws near and says, "You have no right to claim ignorance, human."

Another Bozcomb approaches the officer than had his arm blown off. As the officer shakes from loss of blood and the shock from the weapon, the Bozcomb, still pointing a weapon at him, displays a puzzled look on his face. "Commander," he shouts, "These humans do not regenerate!"

The command looks over and grins, then says, "Kill him." Without a second thought, the solider shoots. The energy blast blows a hole in the officer's chest, killing him instantly. Just then, the doors turbo lift doors open. It is Deanna.

A Bozcomb quickly points a weapon at her as Riker shouts, "Don't shoot!"

"Halt," the commander quickly says, and motions the other Bozcomb to take her into custody. Deanna is completely surprised to see the Bozcomb as if she could not even sense their presence. The commander looks at Riker and Picard. "You will set course for your home world, Earth. If you fail to comply with any of my commands, we will terminate one human every minute, starting with that one," he says as he points to Deanna. Picard turns to Riker and nods. Riker walks over to the helm and enters the course. The Bozcomb looks pleased.

Then, his bracelet lights up and another soldier tells him, "The ship is secure, safe guards are in place."

The commander states, "We can destroy your ship instantly from ours, and we are watching you." With that, the commander hits a button on his bracelet and him and the other soldiers on the bridge shimmer away.

Picard turns to Riker and says, "What's our status!"

Riker, looking at the operations panel says, "All command functions have been locked out. They have complete control of our computer," he turns to Picard and adds, "They didn't need me to enter in the course to Earth, they could have done it themselves."

"It seems to give him great satisfaction to order us around," Picard comments.

Deanna then shouts, "Captain, Worf is still alive." Riker and Picard rush over to Worf. Worf looks badly burned but the shot from the Bozcomb weapon did considerably less damage to him than the other officers. He is unconscious and Deanna is knelling next to him.

Riker looks at Picard and comments, "It would seem they're weapons effect Klingons a little differently.

Picard commands, "Computer, beam Commander Worf to Sickbay."

"Unable to comply, transporters are offline," the computer states. Picard signals Riker to assist him.

As Picard and Riker lift him up, Deanna says, "Who ever they are, I cannot sense them."

"Deanna, remain on the bridge in command and get it staffed," orders Picard. "I sir," she replies as Picard and Riker carry Worf to the turbo lift.

Riker and Picard enter sickbay with Worf draped over their shoulders. Chaos is all around as dead and dieing crewmembers are scattered throughout the room. The medical staff hurries around to save those they can. Picard and Riker rush Worf to a bed and lift him onto it.

Moments later, Crusher rushes over. "What the hell is going on!?" she asks.

Picard looks directly at Riker and says, "We don't know."

With a look, Picard has signaled Riker to do something. Riker turns and walks away.

Crusher is standing over Worf taking a scan when the Bozcomb commander and two guards beam in.

Crusher is shocked, and then says, "I want you out of my sickbay!"

One of the guards starts to raise a weapon as Picard says, "Doctor, don't provoke them."

The commander looks at Wolf on the table and asks, "What species is this?"

"He is Klingon," Picard replies.

The commander then says, "You will perform a scan on him to determine the effects of our weapons on him."

"I most certainly will not! I have severely wounded to take care of," Crusher shouts. The commander quickly raises his weapon and shoots across the room at a patent lying on a bed. The blast rips his midsection apart and sends the doctors scrambling for cover.

"Wait!" Picard shouts. He then turns to Crusher and says, "I'm ordering you to make the scans,"

Crusher looks at him in disbelief as the commander says, "It would be wise to follow our instructions before you have no wounded left to care for."

After a moment, the commander hits his bracelet and the three shimmer away. Crusher turns to Picard and starts to speak as Picard puts his hand up in a signal to remain quite.

Then Riker returns and says, "I've overloaded the surveillance sensors in sickbay, it should give us a few minutes." Picard turns to Crusher and says, "We may not have a lot of time. I want to know what kind of weapon will do that to a human (as he points to the bed with the dead officer on it) but will only burn a Klingon so we can neutralize it."

Crusher states, "I already know what kind, a forced plasma bust tuned to the specific vibration of human DNA. But why would they need such a destructive weapon?"

Riker comments, "They thought we could regenerate. Maybe they're use to dealing with more resilient humans."

**Chapter 4: Death comes for the monsters.**

The Starwolf exits the galactic boarder at the edge of the Milky Way galaxy. On the bridge, Cain walks toward the center as a console rises from the floor and unfolds. Then, a hologram of the galaxy displays.

Kit explains, "No Bozcomb ships detected. Also, this region is saturated with warp signatures. I cannot single out a Bozcomb trail," he adds.

"Nearly all races use warp technology in this galaxy," Cain says as he thinks for a second, "Scan for the nearest federation starship."

"I have it. It appears to be a sovereign class starship with recent battle damage, heading away from us." Kit says.

Cain looks up and says, "Scan background radiation. Specifically, kaydions."

"I detect a field the size of a Bozcomb destroyer, maintaining a close proximity, but not attacking." Kit replies.

"What?" Cain asks. A holographic image of the Enterprise appears. The image is transparent with red dots to indicate the Bozcomb and green for the humans.

Kit replies, "Several Bozcomb are aboard the ship called 'Enterprise' but theirs still hundreds of live humans. All indications are that the Bozcomb are occupying the ship."

"Activate GHOST and intercept," Cain commands. The ship's surface shimmers and the Starwolf disappears in a red steak.

"Federation sensors are not susceptible to our stealth technology," Kit says.

"How much warning will they have?" Cain asks.

"One minute, but it may not be immediately recognized," Kit replies.

"Display the federation ship." Cain says. A hologram of the Enterprise displays with tactical read outs, corridor mapping, and life signs. The indicators to identify Bozcomb are in red while all others are green. The map is in real time as people and Bozcomb move about the ship. Cain notices a group of humans being directed into the main shuttle bay by a few Bozcomb. Cain looks at the image and the image expands as if reading his eyes.

He comments, "They normally don't take hostages. They're up to something…"

Kit replies, "57 of the 94 juveniles aboard the ship have been move so far.

"That control must be neutralized," Cain says. "Easy enough," Kit replies.

"Counter measures?" Cain inquires.

"There is a detonator on the warp core, an anti-gravity de-stabilizer in engineering, and the computer is programmed for immediate self destruct," Kit replies.

"They're expecting sentinels," Cain says with optimism. "It's time we used the guardians against them," he adds. Cain surveys the blueprints for a moment and then says, "OK, here's the plan."

On the Enterprise, children are being taking from there parents by Bozcomb troops. One mother decides to fight. As the soldier tries to take her young boy, she wrestles him away and protects him.

"You're not taking my child!" She shoots in anger.

The soldier looks at her and draws his weapon. Without hesitation, the he fires two shoots, one right into the boy, the other into his mother. The weapon brings horrible and instant death. A father and his daughter seeing this are both shocked and start crying. The girl holds her father tightly as the soldier walk toward them, weapon still drawn.

"This is not a negotiation," he says. The man then pushed his little girl away while knelling down.

"Sweetie, you have to go with them," he cries.

The girl is sobbing and still in shock from what she saw. Still, she has enough wits about her to know if she refuses, her and her daddy will die. She backs up slowly toward the Bozcomb.

The soldier takes her arm and replies, "You humans are weak." He then drags her away while the father can only stand and watch.

On the bridge, Picard, Riker, and Deanna are having a quite conversation. "They have their hand on the self destruct button." Riker says.

"Also, all the children have been moved to the shuttle bay," Deanna adds.

"They are monsters!" Riker says, "They can blow us up at any moment, and they still choose to use children against us." he adds.

Picard looks at Deanna and asks, "What is your impression of them."

"They want to kill us now but they're holding back. They want something from us," she says.

Picard nods his head and says, "I get the feeling were being used as bait."

"Bait for what?" Riker asks.

"That's what we need to find out before we out-live our usefulness," Picard replies.

An ensign calls over to the captain. "Captain! I'm picking up a distortion closing on us. Its speed is off the scale." Picard and Riker rush over as the ensign continues his explanation. "It looked like a malfunction at first but I ran a diagnostic and it appears to be a ship!" he adds.

"The mouse to the cheese…," Riker comments.

Picard nods in silent confirmation.

Moments latter, two Bozcomb officers and the commander transport over. One comes over to the ensign and shoves him out of the chair. The ensign rolls over and jumps to his feet. Angrily he looks at the Bozcomb as another one places a hand on his weapon.

"Ensign!" Picard shouts.

With a look, the captain orders the ensign not to provoke the Bozcomb. Standing over the operations console, the Bozcomb must put his three fingers on the bottom forearm between those on the top, making an awkward hand position he can use to peck at the console keys. He then displays a silhouette of Cain's ship on the main view screen. The commander taps on his communications bracelet.

It lights up and he order, "Prepare for attack." Within seconds, more Bozcomb transport to the Enterprise, including two more to the bridge. The commander walks toward the turbo lift as the others spread out around the bridge. Captain Picard looks around at the crewmembers to let them know to seize any opportunities that may arise. Riker nods back.

Outside the Enterprise, two groups of energy streamers rapidly close in. The first impacts the shields and the shields instantly disintegrate. The second impacts the port nacelle and the Enterprise begins to roll as a power shuts down. The Enterprise is still in warp as the Starwolf decelerates above. Turning up on its nose and following the plane of the rolling Enterprise, the Starwolf fires it underbelly ion cannons on key points on the main shuttle bay. The hits are at low power with surgical precision. The Enterprise falls out of warp rolling and out of control while the Starwolf maintains a perfect attack run in relation to the enterprise. The Starwolf simultaneously emits an array of lasers in all directions. A few hit, stopping when they hit the Bozcomb cloak shield. The others disengage while half a dozen beams follow the enemy ship. The Bozcomb destroyer drops its cloak and begins to run. The Starwolf follows it into warp. On the bridge of the Enterprise, the lights are out as a red flash briefly lights the room. From out of the darkness, bolts of yellow energy streak across bridge. In a heartbeat, two bolts find their mark and two Bozcomb are blown back into the walls. The lights come back up as the Bozcomb return fire. The Bozcomb aim seems to be poor for the moment as they miss Cain. Picard, Riker, and the rest of the bridge crew rush the remaining Bozcomb. Cain fires on the Bozcomb directly in front of the commander and the force launches both though the turbo lift doors. The lift is damaged by the impact and begins to fall. Picard and the ensign are holding a Bozcomb officer as a shot from Cain's assault rifle hits the Bozcomb and propels all three back a few meters. Riker is manhandling another Bozcomb, lifting him into the air with a one armed bear hug and the other arm trying to wrestle the weapon away. Cain fires into the Bozcomb side, spinning both back and onto the ground. Riker rolls to his feet and looks directly at Cain who has a dark, cold look on his face. The weapon Cain carries then disappears in a white flash as he takes a short sprint and leaps toward to turbo lift. The distance covered is incredible for a human. As Cain jumps down the turbo lift shaft in pursuit of the Bozcomb commander, Riker hurries over to help up Picard. They then look over a Deanna who in cradling her head in pain.

"Deanna! What's happening?" Picard asks.

Deanna cries out, "His mind is much too powerful! Full of rage, so much rage!"

Riker looks up, then rushes over to a console and says, "The computer has been reset!"

Picard hurries over to the console where Riker is. "What's going on?" Picard inquires.

"Four other beam-ins reported, two in engineering and two in the main shuttle bay. No new life signs, but Bozcomb life signs are terminating rapidly." Riker explains.

"All hands, this is the Captain, retake the ship at all cost," Picard calls out over the intercom.

"Did you notice the enemy's sudden bad aim?" Riker asks.

Picard replies, "Yes I did, I don't think that red flash is an accident, number one,"

Riker smiles and says, "I'm programming all hallway panels accordingly."

Picard starts walking off and says, "You have the bridge."

At the same time, Cain is descending down the turbo lift shaft. Small control thrusters on Cain's boots keep him from reaching a dangerous speed. A white flash places a pistol in his hand. The gun almost looks like a regular 21st century hand gun but is fully automatic. Cain fires and the bullets pierce the roof of the turbo lift and narrowly miss the Bozcomb commander as he dives for the emergency stop button. And like the mini-gun, no used shells are ejected from the pistol. The safety system clamps lock and the turbo lift screeches to a halt. The thrusters on Cain's boots intensify to cushion his landing. The doors open and the Bozcomb makes a narrow escape onto deck ten and begins to sprint. The structure of the Bozcomb's legs allow for rapid acceleration and a speed far exceeding human legs.

Cain pulls a small cylinder off his belt, aligns it perpendicular the lift, and presses down on the top. An intense laser shoots into the roof. Cain lets go, and the device hovers for a split second then spins around Cain and cuts a complete circle into the lift. He then drops though. The device then falls and seems to guide itself into Cain's hand. He then returns it to his belt and takes and short step up to the hallway as the turbolift didn't stop flush with the deck. Looking though Cain's glasses, which are in transparency mode, a "Tracking Corrected" displays, as if they had a momentary problem seeing though the ship. Cain sets of in pursuit of his enemy.

In engineering four Bozcomb lie dead as a fifth is hurled into a conduit by energy weapons. Geordi looks for the shooter and sees something he does not expect. Advancing toward him is a bi-pedal robot standing about one and a half meters high. It bristles with weapons and has a wrap around scanner array. Suddenly, it shoots toward Geordi. Missing by a few centimeters, the shot plows into a Bozcomb behind him. A second guardian on the other side of the room fires at the Bozcomb anti-gravity scrambler. The shoot bounces off a force field. Then, a mini gun rises out of a port on top of the first guardian and whizzes off half a second of fire. The bullets pass though the force field with no apparent resistance to shatters the unit, pass though the warp core, and embed themselves into a bulkhead. Fortunately, the warp core has been shut down by the Etherian weapons. Free from the antigravity scramble field, both guardians retract their legs and fly out of engineering.

Simultaneously, crew members are fighting to get to the main shuttle bay. The pulse rifles being used by the federation security forces are only knocking down the Bozcomb troops, not killing them. Suddenly, a guardian fires upon the Bozcomb from behind. Four are cut down before returning fire. The last gets a shot off that bounces off a shield protecting the guardian. The guardian finishes him off the streaks pass the federation crew. A crew member looks at two other with a nervous look, then motions his head down the hall, indicating for the others to follow. The three crewmembers race toward the main shuttle bay with weapons lowered but ready. Dead Bozcomb troops litter the hall. A strange glowing blood covers the floor. It's a florescent white with streaks of blue, green, red and yellow threads sparkling randomly. When they reach the entrance and round the corner, they see the children are behind what looks to be a solid glass wall. Directly in front of the wall is a fourth guardian.

Meanwhile on deck ten, the remaining Bozcomb are attempting to protect the commander. As two run toward the intersection at the hall Cain is coming down, Cain already sees them though the transparency setting on his glasses. Cain sees the ship as green outlines, but the Bozcomb are clear as can be. Taking aim at the running Bozcomb, he squeezes off two shoots. The bullets rip though the walls a hit one Bozcomb in the chest and the other in the head, sending them crashing into the walls. As Cain rounds the corner, the information panels lining the halls start flashing red. An evil grin creeps across Cain's face as he heads for ten forward.

In ten forward, the commander has taken a female hostage as a human shield and is trying to contact his ship. Cain steps though the doors, takes aim, and fires with no apparent regard for the hostage. The bullet pierces though the woman's chest, into the Bozcomb's head, and exits. The bullet then pierces the window. The window shatters as Cain, already in motion, throws a tiny device toward the window. The device accelerates itself toward the shattered window. The decompression only last a second as a force field generated by the device covers the hole. Cain approaches the woman, keels beside her, and puts his right index finger into the wound. She cringes in pain and he pulls it out. A second later the wound starts to heal at an incredible rate. Her blood on her shirt and Cain's finger turns into a grey dust and falls away. She looks at him, then her wound with confusion. Cain stands up.

Outside, the Starwolf and the Bozcomb destroyer are engaged in a dogfight at faster than light speeds. The Starwolf is more maneuverable than the destroyer and is able to fire relentlessly while dodging return fire. The destroyer's shields finally fail and the engines are hit. As the ship starts to fall out of warp, continuous hits from the Starwolf take its toll. The enemy ship disintegrates into chunks as it falls out of warp. From out of the debris emerges what looks to be an alien warp core. But before it clears the rubble, a transporter snatches it up. Then, the Starwolf streaks back to the Enterprise. Within seconds, the Starwolf slides nose to nose with the Enterprise.

"Captain," the ensign calls, "That ship is back. Weapons and shields are still down!" he adds.

"Easy ensign, if that ship were our enemy, we wouldn't be here right now," Riker says.

On deck ten, Captain Picard, accompanied by two security guards, is en-route to ten-forward. They meet up with Doctor Crusher on their way. The four of them walk into ten forward and a guardian follows. The guardian sweeps by them with total silence and settles in front of Cain.

"Bozcomb occupation terminated," the guardian announces in a booming synthetic voice.

"Remain on the Enterprise," Cain commands. He then looks up at Picard and removes his glasses. His eyes have the look of a cold, calculating killer. The guardian flies past Picard and Crusher and out the door. Cain walks toward the Captain. His walk is that of someone in complete control. "Captain Picard, we need to talk," he says in a chilling tone.

"It would seem so," Picard replies, then ask, "What's going on?"

"You have a new enemy," answers Cain as he draws near. Then he adds, "And they intend to exterminate you."

"I see. And you are," Picard inquirers. "Xavier Cain, Commander of the Etherian fleet, and your new friend." he says.

Just then, Kit contacts Cain. "Cain, Enterprise records confirm a subspace data stream sent toward the link. It contains the location of Earth as well as all tactical information in the Enterprises database."

Cain looks at Picard and says, "I'll meet with you and your staff in fifteen minutes." With that, he disappears in a red flash.

Picard looks at Crusher and asks, "Did you get a scan of him?" Crusher replies, "According to most of my readings, he was not really here."

"Most?" Picard replies.

"The tri-corder couldn't read anything below his first layer of skin. But what's even stranger is the fact that I can clearly read a bio signature. It seems he is shielded from a full scan," Crusher states.

The woman shot by Cain comes up behind Crusher. Picard sees her coming and takes note of the bullet hole in her uniform. "Are you alright?" he says.

The woman, who is in a partial state of shock, replies, "Captain, I should be dead."

Crusher starts taking a scan as Picard asks, "Why is that?" "That projectile passed right though my heart," the woman replies.

Crusher shakes her head and says, "Her life signs are strong but I can't scan the tissues or nerve impulses."

"Theories?" Picard inquires.

"Some kind of advance nano-technology. It apparently interferes with specific sensor information."

Just then, a nurse calls, "Sick bay to Doctor Crusher."

She answers, "Crusher here."

"There's some sort of drone down here healing everyone at an astonishing rate," a nurse says while taking a reading on Worf. "I just examined Worf, there's no trace of injury, any injury, past or present," She adds.

Crusher asks, "Was there any interference to the scans?"

The nurse states, "Not that I noticed." Crusher looks at Picard.

Picard comments, "Two different technologies."

No sooner does he finish when another call comes in to Picard. "Engineering to Picard," Geordi says.

"Go ahead," Picard responds.

"There are four drones down here rebuilding the warp core, and I don't think their using Starfleet schematics to do it," Geordi replies.

"Elaborate," Picard orders.

Geordi and two other engineers look with awe as the old warp core is dematerialized and a new one takes it place. It consists of five pillars. The center pillar is a square tube with rounded edges. While four diamond-shaped pillars make up the outer perimeter and point inward toward the center. They are joined to the center by a thin, transparent wall. "Captain, I can't explain it, it's something you'll have to see to believe," Geordi finishes.

"Any idea when it will be active," Picard says.

"I don't know, their almost at the top now," Geordi replies. Seconds later, the drones finish the new warp core as it lights up. A soft blue light radiates form the outer pillars turning white at the connecting walls, and a pure black light at the center that seems to have a kind of fog rolling around inside. Geordi calls up some reading on a near by console, then says, "Sir, your not going to believe this, but the core it producing over 400 terawatts."

"That's impossible…," Picard says. "How long until the engines are online?" he continues.

"There already online, it seems that last attack was only meant to temporally disable us." replies Geordi.

Picard hits his communicator and calls out, "Picard to senior staff, report to the briefing room in five minutes."

The moment Cain returns to the Starwolf he says, "Kitt, open a link to Sara."

Sara then appears has a hologram. She looks at him and asks, "What's wrong?"

Cain replies, "That was way too easy." As he walks toward Sara's image, he says, "I need a modification."

**Chapter 5: We haven't seen anything yet.**

Picard steps back on the bridge and orders, "Riker, report."

"We've appeared to have suffered only minor damage in the attack," Riker explains.

Worf is standing at tactical and says, "Captain, we are receiving an upload into our data banks."

Picard looks at Worf and says, "You got up here fast."

Worf replies, "Yes sir."

Picard smiles, then ask, "What kind of data?" Picard asks. Worf presses a few buttons and motions toward the screen. On the view screen, images of Bozcomb personnel, ships, and technology flash by.

"It's a tactical database," Riker comments.

"How large is it?" Picard asks.

Worf looks up, "Unknown yet, it is still uploading.

"Riker looks at the screen and says, "Computer, search the incoming database. How many of ships matching the configuration of the ship that attacked us earlier are in service?"

The main view screen displays a tactical readout of the destroyer and replies, "Current estimation, 182-thousand." Riker is shocked.

Worf comments, "Just one was a formidable adversary." Riker adds, "How many ships total?"

"Current estimation, 210 million spanning 412 classes and configurations," the computer replies. Riker takes a deep breath as Picard looks at the screen.

Picard then taps his communicator and calls out, "All hands, this is the captain. An alien database about our new enemy has been uploaded to the main computer. All officers will need to study it as it pertains to your field of expertise, Picard out."

"You're expecting an invasion, aren't you?" Riker ask.

"Our new ally wouldn't be sharing this level of information and technology if he didn't foresee us needing it. The question I'd like to know is why." Picard replies.

Down in sick bay, Doctor Crusher is heading for the door when a nurse calls out, "Doctor! Come look at this!"

Crusher stops, turns, and walks over to the nurse who is standing over a dead Bozcomb soldier. Crusher looks at the soldier and notices that its skin color is changing, it's now a black and blue and the skin looks like it is blistering. Crusher takes her tri-corder out and starts to scan.

The nurse is already scanning and says, "They look like chemical burns…"

"Yea, but from the air…" Crusher states. The nurse looks up and Crusher adds, It appears that nitrogen is corrosive to them…"

"That explains why they never spent more then a few minutes aboard a time…" the nurse comments.

Crusher presses a few buttons on the medical bed and a force-field appears. She then says to the nurse, "I've removed the nitrogen. I want check the new database on this."

The nurse says, "Yes Ma'am."

Crusher then heads for the door.

In the briefing room the crew sits down before Cain gets there to discuss the situation. "OK, what do we know about the enemy so far?" Picard asks.

Doctor Crusher replies, "There physiology is like nothing I've ever seen. They're not carbon-base life-forms, in-fact, I don't know what they are. They were warring life support-support gear. The nasal apparatus was putting out… something. I did check the data base and it appears nitrogen is toxic to them. I haven't had time to study the rest of the gear yet."

As soon as she finishes, Worf jumps in and says, "Phazers are totally useless against them."

"Bullet's seem to work," Geordi adds.

"As well as the energy weapons used by the other side," Riker adds.

Crusher interjects, "Those bullets seem to leave an electrical disruption in the tissue."

"There's more to it than that," Geordi says, looks at Picard and explains, "I seen an energy field deflect an energy weapon from one of those attack drones, then a few projectiles pass though it, as well as though the core. These projectiles did not seem to notice the force field at all." He pulls a bullet out of his pocket. The bullet seems to have very little deformation to it. "I dug one out of the bulk head and analyzed it. First, it is coated in electrons suspended in a solid state. Now, I have no idea how that was done, but it gives it the ability the side though energy fields. The second and most interesting thing, the bullet it's self is comprised of a super heavy element that has an unknown fourth particle in its atomic makeup."

Picard looks at a bullet Geordi handed him and says, "Matter based on four particles instead of three would indicate a completely different set of rules for science."

Riker then asks, "Why didn't the ship tear apart rolling out of warp like we did."

Geordie puts his hand upon his forehead like he's got a headache, then adds, "I don't know. While that other ship was in close proximity to us, the Enterprise seemed to be removed from the laws of inertia."

Worf adds, "That warrior executed the attack with such precision that he must have known every detail of the situation aboard the Enterprise." They all look at Worf who adds, "The core had all anti-mater converted to normal mater, the computer access lock-outs had been wiped clean and reloaded in a fraction of a second, all drive motors to the shuttle bay were fused with surgical precision, and two of those attack drones where sent specifically to destroy the only piece of technology aboard that could have slow them down."

Picard nods, and then asks, "What do we know about our new ally?" Again, Crusher starts, "I'm pretty sure his human. I was able to detect his pheromones. But most of the scans are being block. And according to the surveillance sensors in ten-forward, he can pass this… stealth onto others, as well as the ability to regenerate."

"Some kind of nano-technology?" Riker ask.

"I believe so, but self-replicating on a scale that is theoretically impossible." Riker looks around and asks, "So how did a human get involved with a race we don't even know about?

Deanna responds, "They're at war…" Everyone looks at Deanna as she continuous as if she has a memory pulled from Cain's mind, "Cain and another human, Sara. They met another alien race centuries ago, the Etherians. The Etherians made contact with a race that wants to conquer the galaxy and exterminate any race that they see as a threat, or have no use for, the Bozcomb. It's a devastating conflict. Countless have fallen on both sides. Entire worlds have been destroyed, civilizations and entire species wiped out…," She looks right at Picard and says, "We haven't seen anything yet," she concludes with a disturbed look on here face.

"You can see that?" Riker asks.

"His mind projects intense rage," Deanna replies, "He is older and more powerful than he appears."

Picard looks over a Deanna and asks, "Will you be aright when he gets here?"

"I think so," She replies, "My mind was open trying to sense the Bozcomb. I'll need to exercise control."

Worf interjects, "We're about to be involved in this war as well." Everyone looks at Worf as he continues, "He would not be advancing our technologies if he didn't expect us to need it."

Dianna adds, "The nanites are part of that advancement."

"But how…," Picard starts to ask as Cain appears in a red flash.

Cain looks across the room at everyone. He then raises his hand to his side. In his grip is a small, silver sphere. The sphere begins to glow and Cain released and the sphere hovers. Then the sphere projects the image of emperor Rieaze around it's self. The crew is startled at the completely alien physiology of the Etherian, and all stand up.

Cain says, "This is Emperor Rieaze of Etheria."

The crew looks with wonder as Rieaze begins to speak. "Greetings, I regret our initial contact had to occur under such unpleasant circumstances," he says.

Picard walks toward the emperor and replies, "It is our mission to seek out new life and new civilization, we are privileged."

Rieaze extends his long arm toward Picard in a jester of friendship. Picard grasps the alien hand in a simple hand shake. "I'm pleased to meet a friendly race today," Picard says.

Rieaze nods and says, "Commander Cain has informed me of the implications the Bozcomb incursion presents."

"Which is?" Picard inquires.

"They now have an opportunity to rearm a very power weapon that would lead to our annihilation, as well as that of many others," replies Rieaze.

"Weapon?" Riker interjects.

Rieaze nodes and looks at Cain who adds, "You have an element that does not exist in our galaxy, titanium."

Geordie interjects, "How can titanium make a weapon more powerful than we've seen so far?"

Cain replies with a slightly hostile tone, "We don't know, but they did."

"So they will be coming…" Picard comments. "Yes," replies Rieaze, "Cain has commanded all alliance forces to press the attack in order to reduce the amount of enemy forces that can be spared for an attack in this galaxy,"

Dianna steps forward and looks a Cain and says, "You don't believe that we will be able to stop them." Cain replies in a cold voice, "No."

Worf adds, "With the power system you have given us, you expect us to fight."

"You will choose that over extinction. And make no mistake, they will not give you no other options," replies Cain.

Dianna replies, "You have strong emotions about giving us access to advance technology." Cain nods silently toward Dianna in confirmation.

Rieaze interjects, "Captain Picard, In 23 minutes I will speak with the alliance console members. As the highest ranking federation official within communications range, I request you occupancy myself and Cain. You may bring one other officer as an aid."

Picard takes a deep breathe a replies, I would be honored."

Rieaze nods, then his image fades. The sphere generating to hologram then disappears in a red flash. The crew turns to Cain.

Cain says, "I know you have questions, so let's have them."

Picard immediately quotes, "Exist in our galaxy." Cain answers, "Nrias, or Triangulum as you know it. Along the boundaries of galaxies there are dimensional links that fold a corridor of space between galaxies when excited by an energy compression wave. You have yet to discover them, the Bozcomb just did."

Picard then asks, "How did they know where to find us."

Cain explains, "Two years, ago a federation ship emerged through a trans-galactic wormhole. The exiting side of the wormhole was attracted to our weapons energy, dumping the Hera in the middle of a battlefield. The ship was destroyed however we saved most of the crew."

Geordi leans forward and says, "The Hera! My mother was the captain of that ship. Is she alive?"

Cain replies, "She was killed in a later incident." Geordi looks upset and ask, "How?"

"The incident is in the data base." Cain states with no emotion.

Picard understands Cain wants to keep on tasks and asks, "But that was over two years ago…" Cain looks at him and says, "That phenomenon rarely follows linear time." Picard then asks, "How do we defend against them?" "An Etherian carrier is on its way here right now. Until then, we need to setup real time communications with Earth and Etheria," Replies Cain. Then he ads, "Captain Picard, I need you to accompany me to Star base 29," he adds.

"Accompany you?" Picard asks curiously.

"Yes, to set up a communications relay on the base. And I don't believe any commander is going to allow me to install alien technology on their base without some damn good credentials," Cain replies.

"I would agree," Picard replies with a smirk. "Why Star base 29?" Worf asks. "The Bozcomb can jam our primary means of long-range communications within a few sectors. Star base 29 is far enough out of the way. Also, it need's a different power sores to remain undetected" Cain replies.

"But its several days away at maximum speed," Worf says.

"Not for my ship," Cain replies. Cain then turns to Picard and says, "I sent repair drones over to assist with repairs and to install an Etherian communications system. You'll have instant communications with your ship while on mine. We estimate the Bozcomb will be able to assemble a fleet and cross over in a day or so. To set up the transceiver will only take an hour. Contact me when you and your aid are ready." Cain then disappears.

"How does he do that?" Riker asks.

"He thinks about it. Something is picking up on his thoughts and acting on them," Deanna replies.

"Deanna, what are your impressions?" Picard asks. "He's very unhappy about the situation. This will be the second time federation involvement has altered the course of the war."

"Second time?" Picard asks.

She replies, "I sensed it when he spoke of the Hara. Something bad happened."

Riker interjects, "Can we trust him?"

Dianna replies, "Yes. He may be angry with our involvement, but he believes we can be a valuable ally," Deanna says. She then looks at Crusher and says, "Cain has given the ensign in ten-forward a critical advantage with the intention of having them spread to the whole crew." She then looks at Picard and says, "The alliance leaders would never of approved it, but Cain believes it is necessary."

Picard thinks for a second and says, "Deanna, you will accompany me. Doctor Crusher, find out anything you can about Xavier Cain. And figure out how to transfer the nano technology, and then spread it to the crew. Will, Worf, Geordie, prepare the Enterprise for another attack."

The crew acknowledge the orders with an, "Aye sir," as they start to exit the briefing room.

Dianna looks at Picard and says, "Before we go, theirs something else you may want to know."

Picard immediately replies, "Cain is not entirely stable."

Dianna smiles and comments, "I guess you don't have to be psychic to figure that out."

Picard and Deanna transports over to the Starwolf. Cain is by a table in the middle of the bridge and says, "I was unaware that you had artificial life forms."

"Artificial?" Picard asks as Cain walks around the table. Lying on the table is the

android B4. With several weapon marks, including a big one to the head, he is inactive.

"I thought we lost him to the Bozcomb," Picard says. Cain replies, "Kit recovered him from the destroyer's wreckage."

Picard looks at the damage, and then says, "Can you repair him?"

From out of nowhere, Kit's voice catches the captain off guard and says, "Which one?"

Picard looks around and says, "What do you mean?"

Kit continuous, "There are two distinct personalities occupying separate memory banks. B4 is in the primary, and Data is in the auxiliary. B4 is the original personality. However, 73% of the positronic matrix was fused and B4 does not contain any schematics of the positronic matrix. The Data unit contains complete schematics of a more advanced matrix. Recreation of the matrix without a reference would yield a 54% chance the B4 personality will operate. But with the Data schematics as a reference, there's a 99% chance the Data personality would be restored."

Cain looks at the Captain and says, "As the commanding officer, the decision is yours."

Captain Picard looks up at Cain and say, "Couldn't you replicate a new android so both may live?"

Cain responds, "No, the android's creator employed some very ingenious measures to prevent the AI from running on a replicated matrix."

"Very well, bring Data back," Picard says. With that, an energy beam descends from the ceiling and separates to fall on each damaged area. Then a fine laser moves around the edges of the energy beams to cut out the damage. The damaged sections are then lifted out. Then fused matter is dematerialized and rematerialized into functional circuitry. Picard leans over Cain and asks, "You're recycling the original matter, aren't you."

Cain looks over and replies, "Yes. The AI is encrypted for a specific sub-atomic signature."

The components are then lower back down into the android. The lasers reverse and join the components to the android. The beams disappear and the android sits up, looks around, then at Picard and Deanna.

He says in a confused voice, "Captain? Where are we?"

Picard's face is lit with joy as he says, "This will take some time to explain."

Data states, "I was downloading my memories into B4, then I awoke here." Data thinks about it for a second and says, "I'm a duplicate."

Cain immediately says, "The original was destroyed, you are his reincarnation."

Deanna says, "Data, you scarified yourself to save all of us."

Data thinks for a second and says, "I would like to review the records of those events if possible."

Picard starts to speak but Cain interrupts, "Later." Cain then says, "Kit, transport over to the Enterprise."

On the ceiling, clamps retract and a drone resembling a guardian hovers down and disappears in a red flash.

"Starwolf, proceed to star base 29," orders Cain. The Starwolf turns and accelerates past light speed.

Cain turns to Data and says, "Your scans indicate you can assimilate massive amount of data at high speed." Data looks puzzled and turns to Picard.

Picard says, "We've been attacked by a race from a neighboring galaxy. We have also acquired a new ally." Picard nods toward Cain.

Data looks back at Cain and says, "Yes, I am capable of learning far quicker than humans."

Cain says, "Good," as he walks over to a terminal embedded into a wall and presses a button. A chair rises from the floor behind Cain as the left and right side of the wall in front of Cain extend out and curve around the chair to form a quarter-circle. Cain looks back a Data and says, "This terminal is tied into our master library. I need you to learn every thing about the war with the Bozcomb so you can advise your captain better."

As Data walks within the area of the terminal, the console and displays begin to change. Cain walks out of the terminal area toward Picard. The terminal then morphs from an Etherian design to a Federation design.

Picard curiously asks, "What happened?"

Cain answers, "It's faster for the terminal to adapt to the user."

Data hears this, then turns to the terminal and sits down. He then starts displaying an array of fast moving information.

Picard looks around at the massive open bridge and asks, "Where's your crew."

"I have none," Cain responds.

"So this ship is automated for the most part?" Picard asks.

"Yes," Cain responds.

On the Enterprise, Crusher is walking down a hall when the computer sounds an incoming communication alert. "Lieutenant Showlitz to doctor Crusher…"

Crusher stops dead in he tracks as she just heard the voice of a dead man! She slowly raises her hand and taps her communicator and says, "You're supposed to be dead…"

On the other side of the conversation is the officer who was blown in half in sickbay. He's is standing next to the doors control pad in the morgue with nothing on and not a scratch on his body. He looks back across the room and sees a medical drone hovering over a body and moving a beam of blue light across the naked corpse. He replies, "Yea, I got that. Listen, I'm here in the morgue and there's some flying… thing putting us back together."

Crusher starts walking, hastily, and replies, "I'm on my way."

Moments later she comes though the door a sees Lieutenant Showlitz and two others following a drone moving from one table to another table. All three seem oblivious to the fact that they are completely naked, like it just doesn't matter anymore. On the table it just came from sits a naked man feeling his left side, stunned to be among the living again. As the drone settles over the table, it emits a tractor pulse to push the blood soaked sheet covering the body off the body and onto the floor. Crusher immediately pulls out her tri-corder and starts to scan the naked woman on the table. She has a hole in her clean though her chest a server burns around the wound on her abdomen, and her neck. It's the woman who was shot trying to protect her son. As Crusher scans the drone starts working. A flat beam of green light descends though the hole and starts to sweep from side to side. As it moves, it leaves of holographic representation of the spinal column. The beam moves transparently though the flesh as if it is mapping unseen damage. Then a second beam shots from the drone and contacts the holographic image of the spinal column. It seems to be injecting a white fluid into the holographic frame.

Crusher thinks aloud and says, "This is absolutely amazing! Cloned stem cells are being introduced into the artificial matrix and are being directed to specify themselves. The rate of mitosis is thousands of times above normal!"

They watch as the lungs, heart, arteries and vain, muscles, then skin are formed. Then the done repairs the skin over the neck and also makes a few passes over other parts of the body that don't look damaged. Then the blue light that was seen earlier appears at the tip of the toes, down the feet, and starts moving up in a cross sectional form.

"Her nervous system is regenerating," Crusher explains. The beam crosses over her chest and goes up her neck. As the beam reaches her head, the line it forms on the surface starts to curve upward. As it reaches the brain, it completes a circle around it and then the circle starts to shrink. Crusher's tri-corder starts make an alarm sound and she responds, "Her heart is beating again, pulse is rising!" The beam closes to a single point and then disappears. Moments later, her eyes open! The drone then starts to move off. Crusher puts a hand on her shoulder and says, "Ensign Kelser, how do you feel?"

Kelser rasieses her has and feels her chest. Then her eyes get wide! She sits up fast and shouts, "Kevin!" She quickly gets off the table a shouts, "Where's Kevin?!"

Crusher tries to calm her as she if she knows the grim reality. "Dana, listen to me, I'm so very sorry…" she says as she puts both hand on her shoulders and looks her in the eyes. Kelser franticly looks around and sees a covered body small enough to be a child. She runs over to that table and reaches for the sheet. Right before she touches the sheet, she stops and hesitates for a moment, the grabs the sheet and pulls it back. She is absolutely horrified at what she sees. More then half of the boy's head is just gone, blown away by the Bozcomb weapon. Crusher and the others come up behind Kelser, who is shaking is shock. "You have to do something!" Kelser pleads while crying.

Crusher embraces her and says, "They have limits, the body can be restored but not the brain."

Kelser legs give and the falls to the ground sobbing. Crusher falls with her still consoling her. Kelser says in a weeping voice, "It's not fair…" Then she shots in anger though her tears, "It's not fair! It's not fair! It's not fair!"

**Chapter 6: The Alliance**

Back on the Starwolf computer announces, "Incoming communication."

"Accept," replies Cain as he walks toward the center of the room. A half-room sized hologram of another ship's command center appears in front of Cain. In this command center is a number of Etherians and one Klingon. The Klingon starts to address Cain.

"Cain, we have inflicted serious damage to the Bozcomb fleet near Craises Prime," he says.

"Show me," Cain says. The Klingon presses a few buttons and a holograph display of the battle field displays. Picard then walks into the immediate area.

The Kingon sees him and says, "Captain Picard." He then looks back at Cain and says, "You cannot find a more qualified commander for the impending battle."

Cain makes an introduction, "Captain Picard, fleet Commander Kernz." Cain then looks at the Kernz and says, "Serious damage?"

"We've destroyed 982 enemy ships. Another 402 had extensive battle damaged but escaped," he says.

Cain replies, "They will rally a counter attack, intercept it." "Yes commander," Kernz replies.

"Casualties?" ask Cain.

"2,184 ships," Kernz replies.

Cain surveys a holographic display of the ships in the fleet. The display maps the ships by type and a number to display the count. Moments later, Cain says, "There are 8,000 ships enroot to your location, 14,000 at Zilios."

Cain looks up at Kernz and says, "Once you rendezvous, drive your forces right into their territory and take Treflowzon."

Picard sees the fleet readouts and says, "You're overwhelming them…" Both Cain and Kernz look at Picard.

Cain replies, "Yes, the Bozcomb have superior weapons technology. But we have the industrial capacity."

Kernz adds, "Commander Cain, even with 31,000 ships, it will be difficult to keep it for long."

"The goal right now is to keep them busy," Cain replies.

"Even a small number of Bozcomb ships can decimate the federation forces," Kernz says, then looks at Picard and says, "No offense to your federation." He then says, "If you contact the Klingon Empire, I'm sure they would be of assistance."

"In due time," Cain replies, then adds, "We have a meeting with the console in one minute."

"Ka-pla," Kernz says. With that, the holographic images fade. Cain turns and looks at Picard and says, "Now we meet with the Alliance."

Picard turns to look for consoler Troy. He sees her watching Data. "Deanna," he calls, "We're ready." She turns and walks over beside Picard.

Cain then orders, "Link to the location of Rieze." With that, holograms surround the three and they now appear to be on another planet. Rieze stands beside Cain as the two begin to walk toward a huge circular shaped building. Picard notices they are on a bridge spanning a cliff and the building. An alien made island of immense size jets up from a sea of… something. It's a green liquid with gas flowing over the surface.

"Oh… my…" Picard starts to say.

Dianna places a hand on his shoulder and says, "Focus."

They start walking to catch up with the Emperor and Cain. Then Picard looks up. High above the building appears to be land. An entire continent, floating among the clouds! Stunned, both Picard and Dianna gaze upward. Now far ahead, Cain looks back to see the distracted duel.

With a command of, "Center," he signals the computer to accelerate Picard and Dianna to his location.

The two zoom to his location. Picard, pointing up, starts to asks, "How is…"

Cain interrupts, "Another time."

The party begins to enter the building. Without the distraction of the environment, Picard notices a view screen hovering to the left of Rieze. The screen keeps pace with Rieze and displays the inside of the building.

Dianna leans over to Picard and whispers, "Captain, I can sense the emperor, as well as other beings."

"But I thought this was an illusion," Picard replies.

Cain, hearing this, says, "The Starwolf has been fitted with a special transceiver."

Dianna asks, "What would you need telepathic communications for? I mean if you're the only one aboard."

Cain replies, "Classified."

The four of them are now at the center of a dimly lit massive room. A wide dark red rail circles around the center of the room. A white light descends from the ceiling inside the circle from an unseen source. The emperor steps up to the rail and starts pressing buttons. A transparent wall half a meter high raises up from the inner side of the rail. Images then appear on the wall. Then, in red flashes, other aliens appear around the ring. A few just fade in, indicating they are actually holograms. Reaize announces, "This meeting shall now begin." Cain starts walking forward and passes through the ring.

He enters center stage and says, "As you know, the direction of the war has been destabilized. The Bozcomb have discovered the corridor to the Milky Way Galaxy and the Federation." The aliens start to quietly converse as Cain looks over at Picard.

Deanna leans over to Picard and says, "They want to hear from you and how we will deal with this situation."

Picard takes a breath and walks though the ring. He gets to the center beside Cain and says, "We have had limited contact with the Bozcomb thus far. What we do know is that soon we will meet them in battle!" Picard speaks with confidence, which seems to ease some of the alien's fears. One alien presses a button on the rail and a green star lights on the transparent wall.

Cain says, "Senator Elisak, approach." The alien walks though the ring toward Cain. He is huge, standing 3 meters high at the shoulders. His head is embedded in his chest and he has four sunken eyes, two up high and two a few centimeters above his mouth. This alien is a biped with stocky legs. His arms are long and powerful.

Elisak begins to speak. "The Federation I am told does not have the defensive capability to withstand an assault from the Bozcomb," he says.

Picard immediately replies, "Many would-be invaders have believed that we would fall to them. We are still here (he says with a smile)."

Elisak looks pleased at Picard's responses.

Cain adds, "We are also sharing known Bozcomb technologies with them."

Elisak looks uneasy at that and replies, "Are you sure that is wise?" "Wise-no, necessary-yes," Cain replies.

Dianna walks up and adds, "We may be less advanced, but we have the same beliefs."

She looks at Picard who looks at her. He then knows what she is sensing from Elisak. Picard looks back at Elisak and says, "It is our Prime Directive that no civilization should be artificially advance by another race."

Elisak replies, "Agreed." With that, Elisak turns and walks away. As he is exiting, another indication light flashes.

Cain replies, "Heirraon, approach." This alien also has a unique physiology. He is a short, translucent being with no visible eyes, ears, or any distinct features. With three short legs, no arms, no neck and a bulge on top, he moves with extreme speed. He seems to glide along the floor and slides quickly in front of Cain. The bulge starts to pulse with light and a computer generated voice speaks out, "I for one don't care if humans have access to technologies not of their making, but weather they can aid us in eliminating the scourge that is the Bozcomb!"

Cain knells down and replies, "You've see what a hundred of us can do. Now see what millions of us can do." Low noise fills the room as the aliens quietly converse.

"What would you have us do?" Heirraon ask.

Cain stands up to address the console. "Launch an all-out attack!" he says, and adds "In a few days, millions of humans and other specie will reinforce our ranks. We need only to protect their galaxy for a few days by denying the Bozcomb spare forces to attack the federation with."

Heirraon moves slightly toward Captain Picard and speaks out. "Picard of the Federation, the Bozcomb destroyed my home planet, doomed my race to extinction, and hunted the few of us who are left, just because we are different. Show them no mercy, because you will receive none from them."

Picard immediately fires off, "They invaded our space, attacked my ship, killed my people without a second thought, and set their sites on my home world. We will not stand by in the hopes of the Bozcomb's defeat, we shall make certain of it!" The aliens start the cheer in response to Picard's words.

"We shall begin immediately," says Heirraon. With that, he turns and quickly moves out of the ring.

Cain turns to Rieze and says, "We shall resume our preparations on this side." Rieze nodes and Cain commands, "link off." With that, the holograms disappear and the three are back on the Starwolf.

"That was incredible!" explains Picard.

Cain looks at him and says, "You haven't seen anything yet." Data sees that they have finished with the console meeting and stands up. He walks over to Picard and says, "Captain, I have a preliminary report for you on what to expect from a Bozcomb invasion."

"Continue," Replies Picard.

Data explains, "They intended to wipe out all specie that are not their own. Humans are at the top of the list."

Dianna looks at Cain and asks, "What have humans done to them?"

Cain replies in a cold voice, "We took away their prize." Just then, a table rises in the middle of the bridge. Cain sees it and says, "Excuse me."

He walks off as Picard looks a Data and asks, "Prize?"

"The prize was the Etherian home world," Data replies, then continues, "The Etherians are the industrial super power of their galaxy. Their holographic shipyards can produce a fully operational ship like the enterprise in just over an hour. Once the Bozcomb controlled Etheria, they set out to conquer the rest of the galaxy."

"How were they driven off Etheria?" Picard asks.

"The Bozcomb define it as a biological engineered pelage developed by Sara Knight. It struck instantly over the entire planet."

"Did you find any reference in the Etherians data banks about what it was?" Picard asks.

"No, that information seems to have been erased," Data answers, then continuous, "The Bozcomb's military intelligence says only humans in the Etherians ranks carry the plague and it is delivered by touch. Learning the secret of the pelage is the Bozcomb's highest priority."

Picard gets the expression he just figured it out and says, "Nanites. If they can repair the cells of one race, they can be easily programmed to kill another race."

Data replies, "That would fit the description."

Deanna asks, "I since an unusual presence about Cain. Do you know how old he is?"

Picard look curious at Dianna as Data replies, "He and Sara Knight are both over 400 years old."

Dianna seems less surprised then Picard as he replies, "What?"

Just then, Cain calls the group over, "Picard, Data, Dianna, come over here." The three walk over to the table Cain is at. They see a holographic display of a fleet of Bozcomb ships.

Picard analyzes it and says, "There coming, aren't they." "Yes," replies Cain, "This group is heading to the link at warp eleven and can be here in 18 hours."

"How many?" Picard asks.

"Fifty-four," Replies Cain, "A group has 5 battleships, 7 heavy and 7 light cruisers 15 destroyers, and 20 fighters."

Dianna looks at Cain and comments, "One group is not all they will send, is it?"

Cain replies, "They are deceptive. One means three, 18 hours is probably less. I suspect this is the slower rear group they are letting us track."

Data adds, "The combine forces of the Federation will have difficulties facing one group, let alone three."

"Are they that strong?" Picard asks.

Data replies, "Yes."

Cain interjects, "We've always been out-gunned. We just need to find another way."

Picard looks at Data and says, "Have you learned their strategies yet?"

"No," replies Data. "Make that your top priority."

"Aye sir." Data says and heads back to the library. Picard then asks Cain, "Do you have another library onboard?"

Cain looks over to the wall by the first library and, as if the ship is reading his mind, another library is produced. Picard is curious as he tells Deanna, "Counselor, I want you to gain an insight into how the Bozcomb think."

Dianna relies, "Aye sir." She walks over to the library and takes a seat.

Picard looks around and says, "The ship, the drones, even you weapons seem to respond to your will, sometimes without any vocal or otherwise seen commands. How is this done?"

"The ship is intuitive and always listening," Cain replies. He then holds up his arm and shows Picard the device he wears on his arm. "This can read low level nerve impulses sent to the mussels controlling your hands. Imagine having a keypad at your fingertips at all times. Just putting your hand in a certain configuration can tell it which weapon you're calling for or if you wish the ship to execute the next likely command." He motions toward the arsenal. Cain then grips as if he is grabbing a weapon and a white flash place a gun in his hand. Picard watches for a moment as Cain cycles though a few weapons.

Then Picard comments, "Dimensional shifting." Cain grins. Picard then inquires, "Can you tell me what makes the ship so maneuverable?"

Cain motions over to the command chair and says, "I'll show you. Have a seat." Picard walks over and looks at the chair, then at Cain, and then takes a seat. "Put your hands on the navigation panels," says Cain.

"I won't accidentally fly us into a planet, will I?" ask Picard.

Cain replies, "No, the ship is smarter than that. Right now you can only train." Picard places his hands on the panels and they light up. The glass disk moves into position over his right wrist. He then displays a look as if he feels something strange. On top of the Starwolf, the center sphere of glowing white light rises up. A few second later, Picard explains, "I can feel… gravity, the stars as we pass, and my exact position in space. It's… remarkable."

Cain looks pleased and says, "Being connected to space in this way, you can fly the ship better than any computer. Now, reach out with your mind and touch a star."

"What?" asks Picard.

"Visualize your hand reaching out for it," Cain replies.

Picard thinks for a second and suddenly his eyes begin to glow. The sphere on top shoots out a bolt of energy! But, it only travels half the length of the ship before dissipating. Picard jump out of the chair as if shocked.

"What the hell was that?" Picard asks.

"The manifestation of pure energy," Cain replies, "The interface will instantly provide passive information on the gravitational and electro-magnetic fields within 20 light years. The system will read your electrical impulses and, if intense enough, manifest your thoughts into energy."

Picard, rubbing his temple, says, "I have a feeling that's the simplified explanation."

Cain grins and says, "The headache will pass."

"What's it from?" Picard asks.

Cain replies, "So far, we've only found human brains to have a compatible electro-chemical structure. However, it causes an imbalance that takes time to develop a tolerance too. The bright light was pure energy using your optic nerves as a conduit to your brain."

"I assume it gets easier with experience," Picard says.

"Yes, replies Cain, "But it will be several hours before you can try again."

Picard thinks for a second, and then says, "You want us to fly these ships."

Cain replies, "Yes, we can make a thousand in a week. But without a human at the controls, it's not even close to its full potential."

Back on the Enterprise, Riker walks into engineering. He notices a drone hovering by Geordi. This drone is of deferent configuration than the guardians. It shaped like a rectangular box with one end sloped and all edges rounded. In addition to its black surface and a silver trim on the bottom is a centimeter wide strip of red light going all the way around toward the top. He walks over and says, "You said you had something to show me."

"Captain," Geordi begins, "Let me introduce you to Kit." Geordi motions to the drone hovering next to him. Riker looks at the drone, then at Geordi with a perplexed look. "He's a fully sentient synthetic life form."

Riker looks over as Kit begins to speak. "Captain Riker, repairs to the Enterprise are complete," he says. Riker looks back at Geordi.

Geordi adds, "And some major modifications have been made. Our warp reactor has been redesigned. The reaction is no longer a matter/antimatter system."

Riker looks at the strange new core and says, "Explain."

Geordi replies, "Well, I'd by lying if I said I understand the physics behind it." He points to the center and adds, "The center is dark matter, and the other columns are anti-protons, an extremely dense concentration of anti-protons. The anti-protons flow across an electron bridge and into the dark matter."

Riker, surprised, asks, "What, how is that possible?

Geordi replies, "According to our laws of physics, it's not. And to top that, it's producing more energy than the matter being used allows for, completely disregarding the law of matter/energy conservation."

"Apparently the Etherians don't have the same book," Riker says.

Just then a communication comes in, "Worf to Riker," she says.

"Riker here," he responds.

"I have reviewed some of the tactical data base and believe you should take a look at some key engagements between the Etherians and the Bozcomb."

Riker replies, "I'll be there in a few minutes, Riker out."

Riker turns to Geordi and resumes the conversation. "Is the core sable?" he asks. Geordi replies, "For all intents and purposes, it's indestructible. A containment field of enormous integrity is generated by the reaction. The field encapsulates every atom. A quantum torpedo at point blank range wouldn't even scratch it."

"That's a major benefit in a fire fight," Riker says, "What about using it to enhance our weapons?" he adds.

Kit then hovers over and says, "Our chief weapons specialist will be here momentarily."

"What? How?" Riker asks.

"Via a micro wormhole link into a hologram generator," Kit replies.

As Riker and Geordi look toward each other with a curious look, a small hole appears on Kit's surface. Out of it shots a silver sphere like the one Cain used to bring Reaize into the briefing room. It then generates a holographic image of Sara Knight. The image is indistinguishable form the real thing.

"Hello, I'm Sara Knight," she says, holding out her hand for Riker to sake. Riker reaches for her hand, and finds the hologram to be amazingly realistic.

Riker replies, "I'm captain Riker, this is chief engineer Geordi La Forge."

Sara looks around and says, "Well, looks like we need to increase this ships fire power."

Riker responds, "How?" Sara grins and says, "This may surprise you, but Federation weapons development excided ours. It was phazer technology that laid the foundation for ion guns and projected nuclear disintegration waves."

"Nuclear disintegration wave?" Riker quickly asks.

"That's a weapon that disrupts the binding forces that holds atoms together. It also plays hell with shields," Sara replies.

Riker response with a grin and says, "We'll then, I'll leave you three to your work." With that he heads for the turbo lift.

A few minutes later, Riker steps onto the holodeck where Worf is reviewing some holographic records at a command console in the middle of the room. On the wall in front of him is and image of a map of part of the Naris galaxy with readouts of Bozcomb and Alliance fleets.

"What do you have?" Riker ask.

Worf replies, "This is the battle that the Hara was involved in." Worf calls up the battle and start to explain as points to the lower left corner of the wall. "This is where the engagement started."

Riker looks at the simulation then comments and says, "It looks like they are evenly numbered."

Wolf replies, "The Etherian ships are weaker though."

Riker then looks at the bigger picture and realize what's going on. "They are drawing the Bozcomb forces away from this region over here." Riker says as he points to the lower right.

"Correct," Wolf comments, then adds, "This system is heavily populated by the Bozcomb, 82% of there population to be more precise."

"Is it there home system?" Riker inquires.

"No." Wolf replies then adds, "They have used up most of the natural resources of their home world."

"What were the Etherians planning to do?" Riker ask.

Worf relies, "A ship with a new kind of stealth was attempting to inject something into the atmosphere that would kill all Bozcomb on a planet."

"What can

"I see, and then what happened? Riker asks.

Wolf zooms in to the battle between the ships that meet the Hera. "This is where the Hera exited the intergalactic wormhole," he says. Riker watches the replay as Wolf continues, "The Bozcomb were very concerned when they scanned the Hera and found a human crew. They redeployed there ships in order to counter the threat, and in doing so, they discover the Etherian ship heading for their most populated sector. The redeployment cut off any escape route. The ship was able to eradicate one planet before being trapped. Then the commander of the ship used the self destruct to keep the weapon from being captured. Had it made it, the war would have likely been over shortly after."

Just then, a communication comes in. "Crusher to Riker."

"Riker here," he replies.

"When you got a minute, can you come down here, I've made some progress on the nannies," Crusher says.

Riker replies, "I'll be there shortly. Riker out." Then he looks at Worf and says, "Have you gone over their infantry combat tactics?"

"Not yet," Worf replies.

"Make it a priority; if we get boarded again, I want security to be ready," Riker says.

"Aye Sir," Worf replies, Riker then leaves.

Minutes later Riker walks into sickbay. He walks over to Crusher and asks, "OK, what have to found out so far?"

Crusher says, "They can't be detected by any sensor technology we have, but transferring them is very easy. I'm infected."

Riker looks more intrigued and ask, "How do you feel?"

She answers, "Extremely well! My breathing is incredibly light even when I exert myself. I have no trace of cuts or injuries. I feel like I'm back in the prime of my life!"

Riker smiles, and then asks, "Do you see any risk to the crew?"

"None, in fact, I recommend everyone get infected. Especial, if we encounter the Bozcomb again." Riker says, "Their hand weapons?"

Crusher says, "Yes," as she turns to a display panel. She calls up a video form a Bozcomb surveillance camera. The video shows a confrontation between a few Etherians, a Human, and several Graztioniz, the race that Elisak belongs too, and the Bozcomb.

Crusher sates, "This was a rescue attempt on a Bozcomb base. Watch this guy." She point to the human. A second later he gets hit square in the chest by a Bozcomb weapon. He is blown back of his feet. But the shot doesn't kill him. The Graztioniz surround him to protect him. His massive wound starts to regenerate as he displays agony from excruciating pain. Within several seconds, the wound closes and he returns to his feet. A Graztioniz hands his weapon back to him and they continue the assault.

Riker looks with surprised and says, "That's one hell of a defense system." "Yes," Crusher states. Her face changes to an uneasy look as she turns away for a minute, then back.

Riker sees that something is wrong and ask, "What is it?"

"Will," she starts, "Their weapons were not always that effective against humans." Riker looks like he's prepared to hear some bad news a Crusher adds, "They captured and experimented one on of the Hera's crew to find the disruptive frequency." Riker asks, "Who was is?"

Aboard the Starwolf, Picard walks up toward the massive cured window the spans the two forward swept sections of the ship. The floor of the bridge intersects the center of the window as it curves into the ceiling. Out side a bluish-grey haze flows past the ship like fog while stars streak by. Picard looks curiously as Cain wakes up beside him. "This isn't warp, is it?" Picard asks.

"No," replies Cain, "We've not used warp drive in nearly 280 years," he adds.

"How long have the Etherians been in space? Picard asks.

"Over a thousand years," Cain replies.

Picard thinks for a moment and asks, "And the Bozcomb?"

"Two hundred and seven years," comes a quick reply from Cain. "There's something you should know Captain," he adds.

Picard replies, "The Bozcomb got the bulk of their technology from the Etherians, didn't they?"

Cain smirks. "Your insight serves you well, but it gets worst," he replies. Cain then explains, "We gave them warp drive, as well as five other pre-warp civilizations."

"What!" Picard says in disbelief as he turns to Cain.

"I agree, it was a mistake," Cain replies, then adds, "The Etherians were the first race to develop interstellar travel and, for nearly 900 years, the only race in our galaxy. It was decided that younger races that meet certain levels of advancement would be brought into the space age. Most races left their petty wars behind them and embraced the new era. But the Bozcomb did not. A decade or so later, they started to develop weapons to conquer other races. Realizing the mistake they had made, the Etherians altered the space around the Bozcomb system to reject warping, cutting them off for almost two centuries."

Picard replies, "That's a long time to be in exile."

"Yes," Cain replies, "It also creates a few generations of hate. We're not sure when they found a way to enhance the warp drive, but four years ago they came out of their system with Etheria in their sights."

Picard then asks, "Shouldn't a race that has been in space that long have more effective weapons then the Bozcomb?"

Cain turns to Picard and says, "Up until then, War was not a concept the Etherians could grasp. Nowhere in their history is even a hint of it. Aggression, jealousy, rage, and hate are non-existent in Etherian culture. It left them unprepared to defend themselves."

"I see," says Picard. "What about the other races?"

"They didn't want to share the same fate as the Bozcomb so they halted any real development," Cain replies.

Picard then asks, "How do I communicate with the Enterprise?"

Cain answers, "The ship is listening, just say what you want."

Picard speaks out, "Open a channel to the Enterprise." Suddenly, the bridge of the Enterprise surrounds him. Cain is still beside him.

Startled, Wolf jumps up and says, "Captain! You surprised me." Picard smiles and says, "I'm getting use to surprises myself."

Cain says, "You can state another room if you like to go there or just walk as normal. Say "disengage link" to turn it off or walk though a wall to exit."

With that said Cain turns and walks into the view screen and disappears. Picard motions to Worf to sit as he walks over to his captain's chair. "Worf, have you been able to find out anything on the Bozcomb that may…" Picard says as he sits down. He stops in mid sentence and looks at the chair and feels it. "This is a hologram… Amazing that the walls a hollow but the furniture is not," Picard says with a smile. He collects his thoughts and says, "About there tactics, do you think they will try to attack Earth first or start with the outer most colonies?"

"They will head directly to Earth," Wolf replies with certainty.

Picard asks, "How can you be so sure?" Worf explains, "The Bozcomb like to cut their enemies heart out first, then to crush there enemy while they are in disarray. They know or weapons and shields are ineffective and they don't give their enemies time to adapt. Also, knowing that standard federation tactics would have us attempt to intercept them as far away as possible with the bulk of the fleet, Earth will be lightly defended at first."

Picard comments, "I see."

Wolf adds, "Captain, the Bozcomb are extremely intelligent and calculating in their tactics."

"In that case, contact Starfleet headquarters, brief them on what you learned so far, and recommend that all ships head for Earth," Picard Orders.

"Aye sir," comes Worf's reply. Just then, Data walks though the view screen onto the bridge. Wolf is surprised to see him, as he can somehow tell it is Data from his confident movement.

Data calls out and says, "Captain, I believe the Enterprise may have been sabotaged in some way."

Picard and Wolf stand up and Picard asks, "What do you mean?" Data replies, "Retaking the ship was too easy.

"Easy!" Picard replies in shook.

Data adds, "Past liberations of enemy occupied ships were complicated by a fail safe devices placed within the ship."

"But Cain scanned us and read our computer records before he attacked," Picard says.

"True. However, Cain himself believes it was too easy as well. Right now, he is reviewing all records of the incident in an effort to find something he missed."

"Are you saying the Enterprise was spared because the Bozcomb still have a plan for us?" Picard asks.

"It would fit the Bozcomb's method of operation," Data says. Picard then instinctively taps his communicator and says, "Picard to Riker." A split second later, he realizes that he is not on the Enterprise.

Then surprisingly, Riker replies, "Captain, I thought you were on the Starwolf."

"I am, sort-of," Picard replies.

"I'm in route to the bridge," Riker replies from the turbo lift. As Riker exits the turbo lift, he sees the android and thinks he is B4 as walks toward Picard. Riker looks at the android more and recognizes Data, and then he looks at Picard curiously.

Picard says, "Cain has reconstructed Data's more complex nero-net. Then the ingrams Data downloaded before he was destroyed took over."

Riker looks surprised and says, "Data?" "Yes, it is me." Data says.

Riker smiles and pats him on the shoulder.

Picard then says, "Will, the Bozcomb may have left something behind. I need you to look for it."

Riker replies, "What?"

"Data will explain," Picard replies, then adds, "In the mean time, I'm going to have a talk with Cain." Picard turns around a walks up to a wall. He stops and extends he hand. As he touches the wall, his hand slides into it. He the tilts his head down and to the left and smirks. Picard then walks though the wall.

On the other side, Picard looks back at the transparent bridge where only Data appears solid. "Amazing," he says. Picard then walks up to Cain and says, "Why did you not tell us you were suspicious about taking back the Enterprise so easily?"

Cain looks over from the logs displaying in mid air and says, "I was surprised to find you crew alive. Then I figured you were bait. However, Kit could not find any fail safe devices the Bozcomb use in those circumstances."

Picard thinks for a second and says, "Do you ever think that you may just be that good?"

"Ego is a dangerous weakness when fighting the Bozcomb," Cain replies. "Then perhaps they still have plans for the Enterprise," Picard says.

"I suspect that do, any ideas?" Cain asks.

Picard responds, "None so far. But I'm having the Enterprise searched. We may be able to see something out of place better than an outsider may."

In Engineering, Sara and Geordi discuss weapons. "Now, lower the confinement beam to .4 terahertz," Sara says.

Geordi replies, "We wouldn't be able to maintain a stream at that level," he says as he puts in the calculation.

"That's what we want," she says with a grin. "Lastly, tie all this in to a gravitation pulse," she adds.

"OK, that should do it," Geordi replies.

"Now let's test it," Sara adds. Geordi then calls the bridge, "Engineering to Bridge."

"Bridge here," Riker replies. "We're ready to test a new weapon. I'm sending you the sequence now," continues Geordi. An officer looks at the tactical display and says, "Captain, we're ready to test fire the new weapon."

Riker looks at the tactical display and says, "This should be interesting, fire away."

The officer hits the fire control button and the phazer emitters light up. They converge to a single point and erupt into multiple energy streams around an invisible line extending from the ship. The steamers impact a target probe and it disintegrates. In engineering, Geordi and Sara look over the firing reports.

"Excellent." Sara says. She looks over the logs intensely and says, "Wait a moment, these conversion rates a much faster than normal."

Geordi, also looking at the logs, says, "The Enterprise has much more efficient weapons then the Hera had." After another second of scanning the log, he adds, nearly all matter in the probe was converted to energy and transferred into our reserves." He turns to her and says, "How did you come up with this?"

Sara smiles and says, "It's a 200 year old recycling technology. With a little federation help, we twisted it into a weapon."

"The Federation crew members on the Hara?" Geordie asks.

"Yes," replies Sara, "Human's, under the right circumstances, are just as malevolent as the Bozcomb."

On the star base, Cain configures a machine. Picard asks, "How does it work?"

Cain looks up and responds, "It's a micro-wormhole communications transceiver. It works by generating a micro-wormhole between here and Etheria. Also, it can generate micro-wormholes within this galaxy to every subspace relay station in your network. All the communications protocols are still contained in your main base computer. This transceiver was also made to run on your power system, hiding the signature from the Bozcomb." Cain turns on the transceiver and a map of the subspace network appears. Then blue icons representing the micro worm holes pop up next to the yellow star fleet icon to represent the relay stations. "We are now synchronized with your communication network." Cain steps back from the machine and says, "Let's get back to the Enterprise."

Back on the Enterprise Geordi and Sara discuss more options. "The ion guns and proton cannons have key component that are matter consisting of four particles. You current power conduits would need to be replaced." Sara says.

"Right. And we need to find more ways to enhance current federation weapons as well." Geordi replies.

A symbol then flashes on Sara's display. She looks up and says, "I'll be back in a few minutes." Her image fades.

As Geordie turns back to the reactor, Riker walks in to engineering. He walks over to Geordi and ask, "So what do you understand so far?"

"Well," Geordi begins as he walks toward the dark matter reactor, "I feel like a caveman looking at a nuclear reactor."

Riker smiles and says, "It can't be that bad."

Geordi follows with, "Take this reactor for instance. The design was top of the when it was decommissioned 86 years ago."

Riker is struck with interest and ask, "86 years ago? What do they use now?"

Geordi replies, "I wish I knew and was capable of understanding. When the Bozcomb conquered the Etherian home world, they were able to reverse engineer the DMR technology. But as far as the current Etherian power generation technology, that was so far beyond their understanding that they couldn't figure it out."

I don't suppose we were given any information on it," Riker comments.

Geordi replies, "Nope. The Etherians will only give us technology that is already known to the Bozcomb."

Riker responds, "What about the nuclear disintegration wave?" Geordi replies,

"It doesn't work against Etherian shields, so it's not that much of a risk. Also, the surviving federation crew helped in designing it."

"I see," Riker replies. He hesitates for a moment and says, "Theirs something else I wanted to talk to you about."

Geordi instantly know what it's about and replies in a slightly angry voice saying, "I already read the reports."

Riker takes a breath in and says, "I don't suppose there's anything I can say to…"

Geordie snaps, "No!" Riker looks at him with surprise as Geordie turns away for a moment and then back. "They experimented on her!" he says with an angry voice. And he continues, "Just for the sake of finding a way of killing us quicker!" Riker watches, and listens, as Geordie continues venting. "Capturing her under the false pretence of making peace. Cain should have been there to stop her; he knew what he was dealing with. Instead he let her die!"

Riker adds, "He tried to save her."

Geordie shouts, "Well he didn't try hard enough!"

Riker looks at him more intensely and says, "I need you to remain objective." Geordie draws closer and looks him in the eyes and replies, "I can't do that."

Riker pulls back a little surprised. The Riker starts, "Geordie, listen, I Und…"

The conversation is interrupted by an incoming communication. "Bridge to Captain Riker. An Etherian carrier just appeared in fount of us."

Riker taps his communicator and answers back, "I'm on my way." After that, he says to Geordie, "We'll pick this up later." With that, he stats to head for the turbo lift as Geordie stands there, thinking.

A minute later, Riker steps on the bridge. He still seems a little upset about his talk with Geordie. Just as he reaches the center of the bridge, a man appears in front of the view screen in a red flash. "Hello commander Riker," the man says. Then he sees the buttons on his collar and corrects himself. "Or should I say Captain Riker."

Riker looks at the man and says, "Ensign Aries, or is it Commander Aries now." Riker speaks with a stern voice. They obviously know each other.

"It's been a long time," Aries replies. Then he adds, "I hope we can put the past behind us."

Riker looks at him. You can tell he doesn't like him for some reason. Riker blurts out, "So, was it easy? Turning your back on Starfleet that is."

Aries is upset by the statement and steps forward and replies, "You don't get it yet. Starfleet can fight this enemies; not with that mentality."

Riker replies, "I don't believe that!" Riker replies in an elevated voice.

Aries looks somber as he says, "I hope you realize what you're facing before its too late."

Riker, still using an elevated voice, says, "Is their some reason for your visit?"

Aries looks down and then back at Riker and replies, "Not really, just wanted to say hi." He knows that he is unwelcome and taps a button on his armband and disappears.

Riker still looks a little angry as Wolf walks up behind him and says, "I take it you are old adversaries?"

Riker looks at him and replies, "Something like that." He then looks back at the view screen and says, "You have the bridge, I'll be in my ready room." Riker then walks away to cool off.

**Chapter 7: Stupid humans.**

Picard looks at a holographic map of the region complete with markers for federation ships and planets and remembers something. He looks up and calls out, "Cain, can you come here for a minute."

Cain walks over and asks, "What is it?"

Picard says, "I've been looking over the route that the Bozcomb took from your galaxy to ours." He points to the map and continuous, "Here is where they crossed over and here is Earth. Now, two days ago, we encountered something that could only be a probe here." Picard points to a spot on a line between Earth and the edge of the galaxy, closer to the edge of the galaxy.

Cain responds, "Starwolf, display Bozcomb probes."

Seven holograms appear of various probe configurations. It only takes a second for Picard to point to one and say, "That's it."

Cain's expression goes dark and he orders, "Starwolf, open a link to the Sara's location." A hologram of an Etherian command center appears around them. Sara is talking with an Etherian and notices Cain has appeared. Cain says to Sara, "The Bozcomb are here already."

Sara replies, "How do you know?"

"Kit downloaded the Enterprises records and analyzed them. There was no indication of a previous encounter. But, Captain Picard has just identified a recon probe that was here two days ago."

Sara replies, "Then they want us to think we have more time."

"Yes," Cain says, he then adds, "The ability to track them in this galaxy is probably part of that deception. I'll warn the Enterprise and Chalema. Starwolf, shift link to the Enterprise's bridge."

With that command, the holographic surroundings shift to the enterprises bridge. Picard looks around and doesn't see Riker. But before he taps his communicator, Riker steps out of his ready room as if he got an alert about the incoming communication.

Picard tells Riker, "Will, go to yellow alert." Riker looks over at Worf. Wolf hits the button and yellow alert sounds.

Riker then looks back at Picard and ask, "What's going on?" Picard answers, "The Bozcomb are here, they are trying to make us think we have more time. We will be there in a few minutes."

Cain then commands, "Shift link, Chalema command center." The holographic communications shift to the Chalema's command center. "Commander Aries," Cain calls out, then adds "They are here, in this galaxy and they've been here for at least a few days. Start scanning the path to Earth, look for unexplained debris, energy emissions, or gravity distortions." "Aye sir," he replies and the link shuts off.

Picard looks at Cain and asks, "What are you expecting?" "They may attack us here to draw our attention away from the route their battle group is taking." Cain replies.

Picard then asks, "Do you know what that route may be."

"Not yet," replies Cain.

Picard looks over at Data and says, "Data, as soon as we get to the Enterprise, I want you to go to astro-metrics and analyze every observation outpost and relay station. Find the most likely path to get a fleet closest to Earth before being detected."

Data relies, "Aye Sir."

The Enterprise is in high orbit around Tarvis 4 when in-between the nacelles a small Bozcomb ship fades in. Aboard the Enterprise, Worf is at tactical when an alarm sounds. Before he has a chance to look at it, a single Bozcomb appears in the center of the bridge. The computer sounds, "Red Alert! Intruder alert!"

"I am not armed," the loan Bozcomb immediately says. Still, everyone reaches for a phazer.

On the Starwolf's bridge, the Starwolf's computer calls out, "A Bozcomb scout ship has just de-cloaked in-between the Enterprise's nacelles. The look on Cain's face changes. His brow lowers and his eyes scream of rage. Dianna, over at the library console suddenly looks up. Her eyes are wide, and then she quickly looks over at Cain. She gets up and starts to head over to the others.

Cain looks over at Picard and says, "They are preventing you from moving." Cain's personality has suddenly changed. Picard now sees the mad-mad who came aboard his ship an hour ago. He looks over at Dianna knowing she can read him better. As she slowly walks up, the look on her face… she is terrified. As the Starwolf decelerate from faster than light speed and closes in on the Enterprise, Kit transports back aboard.

As he ascends to the ceiling, he says, "One Bozcomb has beamed over to the Enterprise's bridge."

Cain adds, "It's a trap, kill it immediately."

Picard is about to say something. Cain looks at him, Data, and Dianna in rapid secession. Then the three of them disappear in a red flash.

Kit then adds, "I've have a solution."

Cain replies, "Prepare to use it. Make a sweep around the planet."

Picard, Data, and Worf are transported to the Enterprise's bridge where all the officers have a weapon pointed at the Bozcomb. Picard quickly looks at Data and says, "Astro-metrics."

Data then heads for the turbo lift. Riker walks up to Picard and Dianna. He reaches out for Diannas hand and she reaches for his. She already knows his intentions. He doesn't slow down and only grasp her hand for a second and then lets go. Then he walks up to Picard and behind him. He turns around and touches them both on the neck. Picard feels a chill run down his body an instantly knows that Riker has just passed on the nanites. "Trust me," Riker says.

The Starwolf flies around the planet while emitting a laser detection filed and settles in back of the Enterprise with weapons deployed and ready. Then, Cain hales the Enterprise.

Worf says, "Captain, Cain is haling us."

"On screen," Picard commands as he turns to the view screen.

Cain appears on the screen. He sees the Bozcomb behind Picard and stands up. "Why is a Bozcomb on you bridge," he says in a hostile voice as he begins to slowly walk forward.

Picard replies with a hint of sarcasm, "The Bozcomb what to talk peace."

Cain says with animosity directed toward the Bozcomb, "What are you up too."

The Bozcomb replies in an antagonistic tone, "We are up too nothing but a quest for peace."

The look is Cain's eyes are pure rage as he starts to walk forward. In a flash, he transports to the bridge of the Enterprise in mid stride in-between Picard and the Bozcomb emissary.

The Bozcomb immediately says, in an insulting tone "Stupid humans."

Then suddenly and without warning, a green energy beam blast though the center of the bridge and comes down directly on the Bozcomb, vaporizing him instantly and piercing the floor. The force of the beam throws everyone back, throwing Cain, Picard, and Dianna into the view screen. Riker, who was standing behind and off to the side of the Bozcomb, is thrown up and over the railing into Worf. The beam in instantly explains into a wall to cut the bridge in half, separating Picard, Dianna, and Cain from everyone else. Outside the Enterprise, the energy wall curves itself into a circle as a monstrous crimson red ship de-cloaks high above the Enterprise. The ship is shaped as a six-point star with the forward point stretching four times that of the other equal points. Toward the tip of the forward spike, a few lines of light start to form and travel back. The front of the forward spike splits; opening into eight sections and elevating and going back half the length of the forward spike to reveal a massive energy weapon. But something is deferent about its cloak. Instead of fading as normal for a Bozcomb ship, it mimics the shimmer of a Klingon or Romulan cloak. The enemy ship is at least 100 times larger than the Enterprise. The cylinder of energy seems to originate from the skin of the ship it's self and not from anything looking like an emitter. It shoots into the Enterprise and penetrates all the way though the ship and begins to pull the enclosed part toward the Bozcomb ship. The Starwolf opens fire with all weapons while the Chalema starts turning around to engage the enemy. Then, three more Bozcomb cruisers de-cloak to fire on the Starwolf. The Starwolf instantly rolls out of the path of fire and maneuvers to attack the de-cloaking ships. On the Enterprise's bridge, Riker is laying dazed as Wolf tries to help him up. The ship is shaking. Wolf then looks at the energy wall and can see the parts of the ship inside being drawn up.

He shouts, "Captain Riker, we must get out of here!" But Riker appears to be partially stunned an unable to move.

Wolf gets to a console and activates a site-to-site transporter. Riker is transported of the bridge. A split second later, the console Worf is at explodes, sending him into the rail. Outside, the section of the Enterprise being removed clears the rest of the ship. The beam then cuts off at the bottom of the sections being removed and the resulting decompression blows crewmembers from the damaged areas into space, including Wolf. But before the decompression can kill them, Worf and the other crewmembers disappear in a red flash. A split second later, the Enterprise's nacelles pulse brightly, brighter than normal. The Bozcomb ship in-between the nacelles compacts as if under unimaginable pressure. The Enterprise jumps into warp, pushing off the Bozcomb ship. The sections of the Enterprise incased in the energy cylinder reach the surface Bozcomb's flagship and begin to pass through. A hologram is hiding the door. The Chalema is under heavy fire from other Bozcomb ship de-cloaking. As it is almost turned around, the Bozcomb flagship fires the energy weapon at the tip of is forward section. The intense beam seems to warp space a little as it makes a direct hit. The Chalema's shields fail quickly and ship is torn in half right down the center. Within seconds it is obliterated before any ships can make it out of its hanger. Kit, knowing he's hopelessly out numbered, jumps the Starwolf into hyperspace. A few Bozcomb ships jump into warp to pursue.

Aboard the huge battleship, the Bozcomb commander shouts, "Secure the extracted sections. Maximum quarantine!"

"Commander, multiple ships are being dispatched from the federation planet," shouts and officer.

The commander replies in a chilling voice, "Let nothing survive!"

The huge ship begins to turn as other Bozcomb ships move to intercept federation and Klingon ships heading up from the planet. The Bozcomb open fire! The federation shields are no match for the weapons being used by the Bozcomb. Within seconds, dozens of ships are destroyed before they have a chance to fire. Ship after ship explodes, even escape pods being jettison from doomed ships are being targeted and destroyed.

As the Bozcomb flagship aligns with the planet, an officer says, "Primary cannon locked and charged!"

"Fire!" the commander orders.

The tip begins to arc energy across it opening and pure energy explodes from the core in a furious strike. Space ripples around the blast at it shoots for the planet. Upon impact, the atmosphere around the impact zone is blown back, the planets tectonic plates buckle from the force of the blast. Red-hot magma is shot up with enough force to reach escape velocity. Over the next 3 seconds, multiple fissures spread out across the planet. Massive pieces of land are force away from the core. The Bozcomb weapon shatters the planet.

On the Enterprise, Riker gets back to his feet in engineering and shouts, "Status report!"

Geordi gets to a console and replies, "We're at warp 11.4!"

"What! By who's order!" Riker demands.

"The command was placed in the computer by the Starwolf," Geordi says.

"Kit," Riker grumbles.

Then, an energy blast pierces engineering and directly impacts the DMR. The shock sent into the floor knocks everyone in the room off their feet! But amazingly, the DMR is unscratched! As Riker and Geordi attempt to get back on their feet, two more shots in rapid succession hit the same spot on the DMR.

"What's happening?" Riker shouts.

"Bozcomb destroyer closing fast!" Geordi shouts back.

Outside, a Bozcomb ship is closing on the Enterprise. It fires streams of particle energy at the Enterprise. The weapons fire easily penetrates the shields. The attacking ship then starts firing on different parts of the Enterprise. Weapons fire rips down the haul. The Bozcomb ship then falls under attacked from behind. It's the Starwolf. Behind it are three more Bozcomb ships in pursuit.

"Do we have weapons control?" Riker asks. Yes," Geordi replies. "Fire everything we've got!" Riker commands.

The Enterprise unleashes a ferry of quantum torpedoes and phazers at the pursuing ship. The federation weapons pierce the shield with the temporal modification, but they only do superficial damage to the surface. The destroyer has ablative armor. The Starwolf continues its assault from the rear while dodging fire from the three pursuing it.

"I'm rerouting the nuclear disintegrator to the aft phazer banks!" Geordi shouts.

The phazer stream splits into steamers of energy. As it impacts the Bozcomb ship, a crater forms and the ship begins to disintegrate like a sandcastle in high wind. When the disintegration wave from the Enterprise digs half-way into the destroyer, the ship explodes in a tremendous release of energy of such magnitude space it's self is compress. The Starwolf had seen it coming as it rolls away at a speed only it can accomplish, leaving the other Bozcomb ships on a course into oblivion. Moments later, the Enterprise decelerates from warp and slides inside a nebula. An intense burst of light from the explosion aluminates the sector just a few seconds later.

"Captain," Geordi says, "We've come out of warp and are deep inside the Nitarous Nebula."

"The Starwolf?" Riker asks.

"Can't tell, sensors are extremely limited inside the nebula," Geordi replies.

"Good place to hide," Riker comments.

Outside, the Starwolf decelerates beside the Enterprise. "Kit to Enterprise," Kit calls over.

"What the hell happened and why did you force our retreat!" Riker yells.

Kit replies, "Your ship is not capable of surviving a direct hit from a Bozcomb ship of that size. You had been targeted and there was no time to warn you."

Geordi, reviewing the logs, says, "He's right. We also lost 34% of the saucer section, reducing shield strength to next to nothing."

Riker, looking very unhappy, asks, "The people in those sections?" "124 missing," Geordi says.

"I have 42. I'll transport them over," Kit adds.

Riker asks, "What about Dianna Troy and Captain Picard?"

"They are aboard the Bozcomb command ship," Kit replies.

Riker looks understandably distressed as he hangs his head while leaning on the control table.

He lifts his head and says, "How soon can we get underway?"

Geordi responds, "Give me a minute to see how bad we've been hurt." Worf is then transported to engineering. He has look of a beaten warrior.

Riker immediately orders, "Worf, I need you on damage control. Weapons and shields are a priority."

"Aye sir," replies Worf.

Riker then taps he's communicator and calls out, "Riker to Data."

Data here," he replies.

"Where are you?" Riker ask.

Data replies, "Deck 7"

"Are you aright?" Riker asks.

Data is walking down a totally destroyed hall and comes up on a force field holding in atmosphere. On the other side is a giant hole in the saucer section. "Yes, but all exits are blocked by debris for the moment," replies Data.

Geordi adds, "Transporters are down as well as all turbo lifts in the saucer section."

Riker then says, "Stand by. We'll get you out as soon as possible."

Geordi adds, "The main power distribution hub has been destroyed. Emergency back-up should give us at least 30 minutes of force fields.

Riker then turns to Geordi and says, "I thought the Etherians could detect Bozcomb cloaks."

Geordi is accessing an engineering console and replies, "I'm way ahead of you. There was an elevated neutrino emission just before the attack."

"Neutrino emission? As in a de-cloaking ship?" Riker asks.

Geordi replies, "Exactly." He points to a video and sensor playback of the attack and says, "Look at the way the ship is de-cloaking." Then he pulls up a log of the first Bozcomb ship de-cloaking after being detected by the Starwolf.

"Two different cloaks?" Riker asks. "Yes, but where the second cloak came from is the problem. According to Etherian inelegance, Bozcomb cloaks project the image of space and false sensor return information against their shields to hide a ship. That's the first one."

"And the second one appears to bend light," Riker interjects.

"Yes, and this is new as far as the Etherians are concerned," Geordi responds. He then pulls up detailed specifications of cloaking devices from Klingon, Romulan, and Federation devices.

Riker asks, "Are you saying they got new cloaking technology from us?"

"Looks that way," Geordi replies, "Employing both methods simultaneously would hide a ship from Etherian or Federation sensors."

"That's just wonderful," Riker sarcastically and hostilely says. Then he adds, "Can we find away to detect them, using Etherian sensors with our knowledge?"

Geordi replies, "I'm not sure, Etherian sensors can see right down to the particles in any given matter over vast distances. But, when they where perfected 500 years ago, cloaking technology had never been a concern," he adds.

"What else did they learn from us?" Riker asks. "I would guess everything in our computer banks," Geordi replies.

Outside, the Starwolf move's over the top of the Enterprise and emits a grey beam of light toward the center of the hole in the saucer section. The beam stops at the point where the haul would start if it were still there. The beam then starts expanding and the stopping point outward like a puddle of water. The puddle of light reaches the edge of the torn out section of the Enterprise and continues over the edge for a few meters. The puddle of light then solidifies and looks like a glass haul. The inside is not perfectly smooth, but has outlines, protrusions, and indentations as if the original haul was still there. The Starwolf then rolls around to the other side and does the same thing. In Engineering, a notification alert sounds.

Geordi looks over at it and says, "What the…"

Riker asks, "What is it?"

Geordi is looking at the read-outs and displays and replies, "The outer haul is back… sort of…"

"What do you mean, sort of?" Riker asks.

Geordi replies, "It's a wall of solidified electrons..."

Riker replies, "I'll save the impossible statement. Can you tell me if we can re-pressurize those sections?"

Geordie replies, "It's already pressuring. The electron wall seems to be bonded to the adjacent haul."

Riker taps his communicator and says, "Riker to Worf."

"Worf here," he answers.  
"Worf, the damaged sections are being re-pressurized. As soon as you determine it's safe, get in there, rescue any stranded crew members, and see you can do about restoring power."

Worf replies, "Aye sir."

Riker stands up and looks around then says, "At least we have power." He's looking at the dark matter reactor like he doesn't know what it is but he is grateful to have it.

Geordie stands up and faces the reactor and adds, "It barely noticed the attack. Zero damage, and power output was at low levels for its operating capacity."

Riker says, "Couldn't we use something like that?"

"Right!" Geordie replies, "The phazer banks can channel much more power than they currently do however theirs never been enough power, so heavy duty conduits that could supply it to them were never incorporated."

Riker turn to Geordie and says, "Get us moving first then concentrate on weapons."

Geordi replies, "Engines coming are online right now."

"We need to get back to Tarvis 4. Move us to the edge of the nebula and scan for enemy ships."

"Yes sir," Geordi responds. The enterprise and the Starwolf come out of the nebula just far enough to scan. "No ships detected," Geordi says.

"I have multiple warp signatures moving away from the ambush site and heading toward Earth," Kit adds.

"Take us back to Tarvis 4, Warp seven," Riker orders.

"Aye sir," Geordi responds.

As Geordi inputs the command, the computer states, "Unable to comply. Warp nacelle damage detected."

Riker looks at Geordi, and then says, "Explain."

The computer adds, "Fractures have been detected in both warp nacelles. Current maximum speed is limited to warp one."

Geordi calls up some reading and says, "Captain, escaping at that speed with our structural damage overloaded the engines. It will take at least 12 hours with the engines offline to fix all the cracks."

"What about the repair drones?" Riker asks.

"There reconstructing the saucer section. Even with the nacelles fully functional, the ship is way off balance. Any thing over warp four would stress the engines again."

Riker looks increasingly frustrated. "Very well, best possible speed then," Riker grumbles. The Enterprise goes into Warp and Starwolf follows.

**Chapter 8:** **Every precaution.**

Aboard the Bozcomb flagship, three Bozcomb are in a turbo lift. The one in the center seems to stand out from the other two. In addition to a slightly crisper looking uniform, he wares a large metallic blue belt. This is the commander. The turbo lift doors open and he steps out, followed by his guards. They step out onto a platform on the edge of a massive elliptical shaped room in the ship. The room resembles an egg lying on its side. Were they exited the turbo lift is at the base of that egg. Directly in front of them is the extracted cylindrical section of the Enterprises saucer section. It is still encased in the force field. Bodies and debris are floating inside indicating there is no artificial gravity. Behind the extracted section is even more of the room. But a ship of some sort occupies the enormous space. The ship within is almost the same shape except for the front. It is flat with an indention at the center to allow for the cutting force field extraction area. It is and isolated research station, suspended at least 70 meters from the main ship on all sides. And at the top of the energy column is a complete circle of emitters, with a larger part at the front coming down a few meters. The commander looks up at his catch and grins. He then walks over to a section of the platform with a control console. His guards follow and they walk over a white stripe on the floor denoting a separation in the platform. He reaches the console and presses a few keys. A force-field bubble is the cast over the platform section. He the grabs a teardrop shaped joystick mounted horizontally and shifts it up. The platform then lifts out of its dock and begins its accent. The commander maneuvers it forward and it passes though a force field spanning the entire room. Then he maneuvers around the section of the Enterprise to reach the exposed half of the bridge. Another platform is already there. The commander docks with it and the force fields merge. They can now walk between them. On the second platform, Bozcomb technicians are working controls that are controlling two robots. The robots have four arms, two at the bottom and two at the top of a rectangular trunk. They hover through the wreckage and one lifts a large piece of view screen on top of Cain. Then it is oriented above Cain so all four arm dangle down. Then one set of arms grab Cain's arms and the other set grabs his legs. The robot then lifts him up. A remote controlled bed then hovers below Cain and the robot lays him down on the bed. A force field then forms around the bed. Then the bed starts to move and passes though the force field around the Enterprise section, then though the vacuum between it and the platform, and slides into the force field protecting the platform. The commander walks over and looks at Cain and grins.

"Excellent!" he says as another officer walks up beside him. He then turns to that officer and says, "Have you selected your test subject?"

The office replies, "Yes," he says as he looks over to another bed already on the platform. Behind the force field is Picard. The office continues, "As luck would have it, we have the commanding office of the Federations flagship."

The commander says, "Good, now get rid of the rest." With that command, huge doors for the portal that the section of the Enterprise came though start to open.

Another officer walks up to the commander and says, "Commander, we have lost contact with the 4 destroyers sent after the human's and Cain's ship."

The commander replies, "What is the possibility Cain's ship was able to take out four destroyers by it's self?"

The officer replies, "Very possible. It has defeated five with relive ease. None of them had even land a hit on its shields."

"And the Enterprise?" the commander asks. "I don't see a way it could have survived," the officer states.

Another office states, "Dissention underway." The commander and the others look toward the section of the Enterprise as it starts to descend. The bottom goes though a hole in the bottom of the bay. On the outside of the ship a hologram still covers the portal for the bay door as the sections of the Enterprise side out. As it clears the ship, the energy field cuts off at the outer haul at the top of the Enterprise section. However, the force field connecting the top part of the haul and the bottom still remains as the entire section falls away from the ship. The Bozcomb ship then shimmers back into cloaking mode.

Back in the bay, an officer says, "The catch has fallen out of warp and the containment field will fail in 35 seconds."

The commander replies, "We shall return after the mission to see how the cold vacuum of space affects the micro-bots." He then heads back to the platform from where he came and his to guards follow him. After he returns to the controls, he notices one of his guards looking back at Cain and asks, "Nervous?"

The guard replies, "Just concerned."

The commander replies, "We've taken every precaution."

Back on the Enterprise in engineering, Geordi is reviewing sensor logs when he finds something interesting.

"Captain," he starts, "They're cutting beam was calibrated to our shield modulation."

Riker thinks for a moment, and tells Geordi, "All stop."

"Answering all stop," Geordi replies, then inquires, "Do you thinking they got into our computer systems?"

Riker responds. "It's the only way they could match the random shield frequency. We need to know if they still have access."

Geordi pulls up a console and runs a few tests. "All security protocols indicate no tampering." He replies. Geordi then starts running a few more tests. "I'm looking for an external object," he comments. As the console displays data, Geordi starts to talk to himself. "No detectable transmissions, no power drains, no unusual energy signals… Captain, there is 12 kilograms of mass not accounted for by the inertia dampeners."

Riker looks at the display and says, "That's well within safety limits."

Geordi replies, "Yea, but not for the Enterprise. Our internal sensors are the most advance in Starfleet, we can account for all mass within a 1.4 kilogram margin for error."

"Then we have a stowaway." Riker says.

Just then, Kit transports into engineering. "Captain Riker, is there a problem?"

Riker stands up and says, "We believe the Bozcomb left some kind of probe behind."

"We've repeatedly scanned your ship for Bozcomb technology and found none." Kit says.

"Captain," Geordi calls, "I've be going over the sensor logs for the warp field, it was adjusted slightly to compensate for extra weight after we went into warp when the Bozcomb were occupying the ship."

"Can you pinpoint it?" Riker ask.

"I think so. The field shifted as the mass moved from deck 9, section 13 to the secondary computer core." Geordi replies.

Riker taps his communicator and says, "Riker to Worf."

"Worf here," he replies.

"Worf, we have a cloaked probe inside the secondary computer core.

"How do we detect it?" Worf replies.

Riker looks at Kit. Kit answers, "Flood the room with phaser fire, which will destabilize the cloak. Once you see it, shoot it at maximum power. This will collapse the cloak and start a fail-safe. I'll be able to lock onto the energy spike and beam it into space."

"Failsafe? As in a self destruct?" Riker ask.

"Yes," Kit replies, "It will take two seconds to reach critical mass. I can transport it by then."

Kit then disappears in a red flash. Riker looks back a Geordi with an uneasy look that they both share. "Did you read that?" Ricker calls to Worf.

As Worf walks down the hall with two other security officers he replies, "Aye sir."

"Do it," Riker replies.

Worf enters the core room and looks around. Seeing nothing he pulls out his phazer and sets it to a low level wide beam. He then fires into the room. The beam aluminates the room and Worf sees a distortion to the right. Quickly resetting his phazer, Wolf fires a shoot and directly hits a cloaked object. The cloaked destabilizes to reveal a spherical probe with a rod coming out of the bottom and piercing a computer console. Suddenly, the probes rod retracts and the sphere splits horizontally. The top extends to reveal a bright glowing power core. A high pitch sound starts to emanate from the probe, an ominous warning of a fail-safe detonation. Then, in a split second, the probe disappears in a red flash. Outside the Enterprise, the probe appears and is shot out into space by a tractor beam pulse from the Starwolf's tractor beam. Then, a massive explosion lights up in the distance.

In engineering, Kit returns and displays a hologram of the enemy probe. "It's a passive spy drone." He says.

Riker looks at it and says, "So they know everything." "No, its only purpose was the read shield information." Kit replies.

"Can you be sure?" Riker inquires.

"Yes, once we transport an object, its pattern can be used to make an exact simulation, including programming and memory." Kit replies.

"I thought you could detect Bozcomb cloaks in this galaxy," Riker says.

"We did detect the destroyer cloaked beside you, but not the probe or the Bozcomb fleet." Kit replies.

"But the probe was placed onboard before you got here," Geordi says.

Riker promptly responds, "It was a trap. The Bozcomb let Cain believe he had a tactical advantage. Your ability to detect their ship was part of that deception. Then the probe let them know where we were, when he transported aboard, and what are shield modulation was."

There's a moment of silence, the Geordi remarks, "What about our people?"

Kit replies, "That weapon is used to capture personnel and equipment from ships or a planets surface. Seeing how you have no technology they would want, I can only conclude they are interested in people. Cain is the supreme commander of the alliance forces, but members of your crew may be used for study."

"Study?" Riker demands an explanation.

Geordi comment, "Just like my mother."

Aboard the Bozcomb ship, Picard and Cain lay unconscious on two examination tables. Picard is still fully clothed but the Bozcomb are in the process of removing Cain's clothes. A robot is seen dumping Cain's shirt into a bin while a Bozcomb is standing off to the side with a hand-scanner taking readings of the shirt. Then the robot hovers back over to Cain. A Bozcomb off to the side controls the robot via a portable control pad with a screen on it. The pad has a handle specifically designed for the Bozcomb hand. In his other hand is a bent cylindrical rod, like a pencil, that is a controller for it. On the screen is a live image of Cain's mid section. The fasteners for Cain's pants have a blue rectangle drawn around them. He maneuvers the outline to the left of the button for the pants and the taps a button. A simulation then runs on the screen of the fasteners being undone and then a strange symbol appears on the screen to indicate that the simulation was a success. He then presses another button and commands the robot to perform the action. The robot then extents it hand and grips the snap side of the pants and flips it up. Then another arm reaches down and grabs the zipper and slides it down. As the Bozcomb guides the robot down to Cain's feet, a view screen comes up. It is the commander.

"Progress report," he orders. Another Bozcomb, the lead scientist addresses the Commander.

"We're almost done removing Cain's clothing," the scientist replies.

"The humans anesthetizing gas is ready, move Cain to lab 2 immediately," the commander orders.

The lead scientist turns back to Cain. The robot has a hold of Cain's plants and is pulling them off. As it finishes, the lead scientist motions two guards over. They walk over to the table, Cain is now completely naked.

The lead scientist says, "Take him to lab 2."

One guard takes hold of the tables handle and starts to push as the other un-holsters his weapon and follows. The Bozcomb controlling the robot now turns his attention to Picard.

On the bridge of the Bozcomb ship, an officer walks up to the commander and says, "Long range scanners are still being jammed behind us."

The commander responds, "So Cain ship survived… But why is it running with jammers… It's protecting something." He concludes.

The officer replies, "It followed the human ship toward an anomaly that interferes with our sensors. Perhaps more human ships were hiding there."

The commander replies, "Perhaps. But the jamming started the instant the human ship whet into warp." He thinks for a second and says, "Review your assessment on the chances for survival of the human ship. We may have overlooked something."

"Yes commander," the officer states.

**Chapter 9: Devastation**** and resurrection****.**

Back on the Enterprise, Kit turns to Riker. "Captain Riker, the repair drones inform me that your bridge has been restored," Kit says.

Riker calls over communications, "Worf, the bridge is back. Get up there and get it staffed."

"Aye sir," comes the response from Worf. A few minutes later, Worf enters the bridge. He looks around and sees the bridge is restored, more or less. Some of the aesthetic were skipped to save valuable time. He then walks over to a terminal and accesses the personnel files. He taps his communicator and says, "Ensign Roads and Kelson to the bridge." Worf then access tactical, then calls, "Worf to Engineering."

"Riker here," Riker responds. "Captain, we are approaching the coordinates of the attack, but Tarvis 4 is not there," Worf says.

"What!?" shouts Riker.

Over communications, Kit adds, "Confirmed, the planet has been destroyed."

The Enterprise and the Starwolf decelerate to sub light speed in front of an asteroid field. Riker steps out of the turbo lift and says, "On screen." The asteroid field contains massive chunks of planet mixed with countless smaller rock. Riker is speechless.

Worf at tactical says, "There are… no life readings. No life pod beacons…"

Riker turns to him and asks, "Wolf, how many were on Tarvis 4?"

Worf calls up the record and replies, "Approximately 3.6 billion from 8 different races."

Ensign Roads call out, "Captain, several satellites, including the subspace communication relay, are still transmitting."

Riker looks surprised as he says, "What?" as he walks over to the console. He looks down and says, "Why would they…" He stops in mid sentence and looks up and concludes, "They want everybody to know." Riker then turns to Worf and says, "Worf, download all information from the satellites." He then taps his communicator and calls, "Riker to engineering."

"Geordi here," comes the answer.

"Geordi, we are going to be here for a half hour. Repair as much as you can of the nacelles and use all available teams," Riker orders.

"Aye sir," Geordi replies.

Then, Ensign Roads call out, "Captain! I'm detecting 3 ships de-cloaking!" On the view screen, two Klingon birds of prey and a battle cruiser de-cloak. "They are Klingon," says Worf. "They are haling us," he adds.

"On screen," Riker says as he turns toward the view screen.

On the view screen appears chancellor Martok. "What has happened here!?" Martok demands.

Riker replies, "The Federation is under attack by a very powerful enemy. Join us for a briefing, there is much to discuss."

"I will beam over immediately," Martok states.

"Worf, inform security," Riker says.

Worf is already tapping buttons at his terminal and says, "Informed."

Riker then orders, "Worf, Data, ready room," The three enter the ready room and take a seat. Riker looks down and put is head in his hands. Data and Worf look at each other, knowing their Captain is pre-occupied with the fate of his wife. After a few seconds, Riker looks up and says, "Alright, I'm open to suggestion."

Data replies, "Sir, the ship we encountered is a juggernaut, a planet killer." Just then, Martok is escorted by a security officer into the room. Riker motions him to take a seat.

As Martok take a seat, Riker says, "Continue Data." "The juggernaut has a top speed of warp six. It will reach Earth in a little over seven hours," concludes Data.

"One ship did this!?" Martok asks.

"One very powerful ship accompanied by a fleet of smaller ships," Riker says.

"There were 80 thousand Klingons on Tarvis 4!" he says in outrage.

Data states, "It's a show of force." Riker turns to Data as she continues, "The Bozcomb knew Tarvis 4 was a joint military outpost. They wanted to invoke fear in all members of the Federation so they will recall there ships to protect there home planet."

Martok slams his fist on the table in anger and shouts, "The Klingon Empire will not yield to intimidation!"

Riker smiles and says, "We can sure use any help you can provide."

"You shall have it!" Martok says, "An entire fleet can be at Earth in five hours," he adds.

Riker says to Worf, "Worf, I want you to share all tactical data concerning the Bozcomb with the Klingon forces."

"Yes sir," Worf says as he stands up and motions Martok to follow him.

As they leave, Riker ask, "Have communication with the Etherians come back on line yet."

"No," Data replies, "The Bozcomb have a method of jamming Etherian communications. I won't attempt to explain how, but inter-galactic communication will be out for several hours. However, the communication relay Cain setup will allow instant communication in this galaxy."

"So they don't know what's happened yet."

"No sir," replies Data.

"What will the Bozcomb do next?" Riker asks as he leans back.

Data replies, "The events from our first encounter to now seem to have been carefully planed to capture Cain. Now that their goal is completed and we know they are here, I believe they will head straight for Earth."

"Will they destroy Earth," Riker asks.

Data replies, "It is highly likely, they can mine titanium from space derbies with greater ease than if the planet was intact."

"We have to reach earth before they do!" Riker demands.

"Unfortunately, that is impossible given our battle damage," Data says.

"I want options!" Riker demands.

Just then, a holograph image of Sara fades in. She looks over at Riker and says, "We just got the news."

Riker asks, "How far away are you?"

"We just entered your galaxy and will be here in 27 minutes," She says as she sits down.

Riker leans forward, places his arms on the table, and says, "Can you stop that ship?"

"No," Sara replies.

Riker says, "Haven't you destroyed them before?" Data jumps in and says, "Cain used quantum singularity weapons to accomplish their destruction."

To that, Sara adds, "Throwing a black hole at them would destroy the solar system as well."

"Can you intercept them?" Riker asks. "Yes, but that's not a good idea," Sara says.

"Why not?" Riker asks.

"We would be at a server tactical disadvantage. The juggernaut has a weakness though. To fire its primary weapon, it must divert all power to the weapon for 23 seconds."

Riker comments, "No shields…"

"Exactly," Sara answers, "We will keep the juggernaut from lowering its shields to used its primary weapon. The federation fleet must keep the rest of their fleet occupied"

Riker ask, "What if we were to use our temporal weapons on that ship?"

"Its armor is too thick; it does not even need shields for your weapons at present." Then she adds, "I got some planning to do, I'll speak with you after we rendezvous."

With that, her image fades away. Riker thinks for a minute and says, "Dismissed."

The Enterprise, Starwolf, and the Klingon escorts are headed toward Earth. Data picks up something on sensors. "Captain," Data calls from the operations station, "I'm detecting a debris field ahead." Riker walks up to Data as he continues. "The field consists of various metals, compounds, and…" looking up in discomfort, Data adds, "81 bodies."

"Take us into that field," Riker orders.

"Aye sir," Data replies.

Outside, the Starwolf jumps in front of them, and disappears in a red streak. A second later, the Starwolf is at the debris field. But this time, instead of a detection field, Kit lays down fire from all weapons while rolling around the perimeter of the field.

At tactical, Worf says, "Captain." as he motions to the screen. Worf displays representation of the field of fire. It's well dispersed in all directions except a corridor for the Enterprise to come in though.

Riker comments, "I guess he's not going to be fooled a second time."

"There is 83 missing including Cain," Worf says.

Riker orders, "Transport them to cargo bay four." He then calls to sickbay, "Riker to Doctor Crusher."

"Crusher here," she replies.

"We've beamed 81 bodies to cargo bay four." Riker says.

"On my way," she replies.

Data turns around and says, "I have scanned the transporter logs and have identified all the crew members. Captain Picard and Cain are not among them."

Riker stumbles with an intense look of grief as he knows his wife Dianna is among the dead. "Data, you have the bridge," He says as he heads for the turbo lift. Data moves toward the command chair as Riker steps into the turbo-lift.

Wolf watches the door close and says, "That is no way to die."

Crusher is already in cargo-bay four looking over the bodies as Riker rushes in. He scans the room and quickly zeros in on his wife, Dianna. He runs over to her, kneels beside her, sweeps her up in his arms, and starts to cry. As he cries, Crusher walks up quickly and says, "Will, something's not right here. All these bodies have already thawed."

Riker, still weeping, leans Deanna back a little to see her face. It looks cold and without color. But soon the color starts to return. Suddenly, her eyes pop open and she gasp for air! Within moments, everyone lying in the bay jerks awake and start gasping for air. Riker pulls her in and tiers of sorrow turn to tears joy. "I thought I lost you… I thought I lost…" he sobs.

Deanna looks confused and Crusher ask, "How do you feel?"

Deanna looks at her and replies, "I was cold for a second but now I'm fine. What is going on here?"

Riker draws back and says, "You were spaced. They left you for dead among the debris from the Enterprise."

"What?" What happened?" she asks.

"What do you remember?" Crusher asks. "I was on the bridge next to Captain Picard when everything went dark. Then I awoke here, freezing and I felt like I was suffocating," Deanna replies.

"This… this… this is just all impossible," says Crusher in disbelief.

Dianna asks, "Will, where's Captain Picard?"

"Still aboard that ship that attacked us," Riker replies. He then stands up and pulls Deanna up. "Common, lets get back to the bridge," he says.

As Riker and Dianna step back onto the bridge, everyone looks in surprise.

Then Wolf says, "Those nanites are very impressive."

Data hears this and ask, "Were you able to pass them on to Captain Picard?"

"I believe so," Riker answers.

"Then he is a prisoners to be experimented on," Worf growls.

"It would seem so," says Riker as he walks back to his chair. "Resume course," he orders as he takes a seat.

Data then ask, "Permission to go to engineering." Riker nods and says, 'Granted." Data the heads for the turbo lift.

Data steps out of the turbo-lift and walks toward engineering. As he rounds the corner, he spots Geordi. "Geordi," he calls. Geordi comes to see his friend.

"Data, I heard you had been restored. How do you feel?" Geordi says.

Data ponders his answer for a second and says, "One moment I was attempting to reprogram B4 with you, the next moment I was aboard an alien ship. I feel as if I lost a part of my life that I never lived."

Geordi looks down, and then back up, "We all missed you a great deal."

Data replies, "I cannot image that feeling. For me, it never occurred. But knowing I was grieved for creates an emotion I cannot describe."

Geordi smile and says, "Glad to have you back."

Data looks around and asks, "Can I be of assistance here?"

Geordi replies, "As long as were at warp, we can't do anymore more repairs the engines." Geordi looks back at an engineering console and says, "Come to think about it, maybe you can explain this to me." Data walks over and looks at the display.

Data says, "It is a particle known as a decron." "That much I got," replies Geordi, "But I'm having difficulty understanding its nature."

Data explains, "This particle is a bridge between convention matter and dark matter. If alone, the particle shifts toward the conventional matter values. But, when it bonds with conventional particles, the properties mimic dark matter and offset the conventional particles properties. Also, as with conventional matter and energy, dark matter is affected by dark energy."

In amazement, Geordi replies, "So the whole atom is now affected by both conventional and dark energy, which explains how the atom can be significantly lighter than its atomic number would indicate."

"Yes," replies Data, "It also alters other properties in ways we have never imagined."

Geordi leans up against a table and says, "This completely throws the current laws of physics out the window."

Data replies, "True, but only when dealing with decrons. The Etherians have learned a great deal form our science."

Geordi looks surprised and ask, "Really?" Data replies, "They have thousand of elements to choose from. Our level of technology, derived from such a limited number of elements, is almost impossible for them to conceive."

Geordi looks back at the new warp core, then to Data and says, "If we survive the next 24 hours, I know what I want to study."

Data nods and says, "For now, don't worry about how it works, just know that it does."

"That's easy for you to say," Geordi replies.

Data walks onto the bridge and sees Riker setting in the command chair viewing some logs. He walks over and says, "Captain, I believe the Bozcomb have knowledge of our technology prior to the encounter with the Hara two years ago."

Riker looks up and says, "I'm thinking the same thing."

Data take's a seat and adds, "I analyzed a bulkhead in engineering struck by their weapons. There is a polaron field surrounding impact zone."

"Polaron?" Riker asks in surprise, "As in dominion weapons?"

"Similar," replies Data, "However, polaron field generators are not a technology known to the Triangulum galaxy." Riker looks curious as Data continues, "We use polaron imaging to filter out random energy from sensor information. Etherian sensors do not use any filters."

Riker replies, "So if any common sensor array, like that on a probe from our galaxy, found its way over there…"

"The Bozcomb would have a technology the Etherians would never consider." Data concludes.

"Inverting a polaron field into our shield grids were effective against the dominion weapons, would that help us with the Bozcomb?" Riker ask.

"It is very likely," Data replies, "I will get with Geordie and run some theoretic models with the information we have to date." Riker nods and Data gets up and heads for the turbo-lift.

Then Wolf calls over and says, "Captain Riker. I have something you should see." Worf pulls up a record on the screen along with a map.

Riker looks at it for a second and says in a shockingly grim tone, "This can't be."

Just then an alert sounds. Worf gets up and heads to tactical. Worf presses a few keys on the tactical display and says, "Captain," as he motions to the view screen.

Rapidly gaining on the enterprise is a huge Etherian carrier. It dwarfs the Enterprise and their Klingon escorts. Moments later, an audible message plays on the intercom. "Enterprise, maintain your speed and heading. We will bring you in."

Riker says, "Open a channel to Martok's ship."

Martok appears on the screen. He looks cautious, as if he heard the same massage and is deciding how to react.

Riker says, "Don't be alarmed, these are our allies."

"The Etherians are pulling us in," Worf says.

The view screen now shows the inside of a colossal ship. The Klingon are pulled in as well. As the Enterprise comes to rest in the center of the hanger, a grayish-white energy field descends on the damaged areas of the saucer section.

Worf looks at the damage control display and says, "Captain, the damaged sections are regenerating at an incredible rate. Decks 9, 12, 15..." Worf looks up and says, "The Enterprise has been completely restored."

"Engineering to bridge," Geordie calls.

"Bridge here," Riker says.

"Geordie report, "Captain, the warp field just evaporated. What's going on up there?"

"We just docked," Riker says. He then adds, "Figure out how they shut down our warp field, then how to overcome it. That should tell us how the Bozcomb did it."

"Aye sir," Geordie replies.

Then Sara appears on the view screen and says, "Captain, I need to see you and your senior staff in your briefing room immediately."

Riker taps his communicator and orders, "All senior officers report to the briefing room on the double."

Meanwhile, outside the Enterprise inside the gigantic hanger bay, bridges and platforms are jetting out from the walls. The bridges seem to be building themselves at the points where they emerge from the hanger wall just under a door. They extend with frightening speed and appear rock solid, as if the artificial gravity in the hanger bay chooses not to affect the bridges. The platforms come to rest just under the Klingon birds of pray and the bridges extend to the air locks of the Enterprise and those of Martok's battle cruiser. A few seconds later, the airlock on Martok's ship opens. Out steps Martok and two other Klingons, as if they had received and invitation. After a few steps, one of Martok's men sees something while looking around.

He calls out, "Chancellor, look!" He point to his left. The three look at what appears to be a bird, a huge bird! The bird flies up to the bridge and dips a wing while starting a turn. This drops the bird's airspeed the nothing as he lands of the bridge. Facing the Klingons, they get a first look at this alien. Standing about 2.3 meters tall and with a 6 meter wingspan, it is a monstrous looking creature. It has large black eyes and a powerful hooked beak. It's covered in brown feathers with red ones one the leading edges of the wings. On the wing is and arm that is part of the wing from the shoulder to the elbow. After the elbow it in separated but still covered in feathers down to the hand which has three fingers and two thumbs, covered with fine red fur. The legs are thin but pretty well toned indicating this alien spends as much time on the ground as it does in the air. The feet are bear of any feathers or fur and are a yellowish color with three toes going forward and one larger one going back. On all toes is a mean looking hooked talon. The alien leans forward and from its beak comes a loud shriek. The shriek has rapid highs and lows and is instantly translated. The Klingons hear, "Klingons! I am Rez-ra; I will be teaching you how to fight the Bozcomb!"

**Chapter 10: Nanites Explained**.

As the senior staff gets seated, Sara sits across the conference room in silence. She looks like she thinking about something. Then she says, "Is everyone here?"

Riker looks around and says, "Yes."

Sara then says, "Let's get started."

Suddenly a red flash fills the room. The walls disappear as the senior staff, chairs, and conference table are transported to a giant empty room, presumably aboard the Etherian ship. The crew is a little startled as Sara stands up. She begins with, "What I'm about to tell you cannot leave this room. Everybody clear on this?"

Everyone nods in agreement and no one even asks what is first. Sara continues. "The nanites continuously send us information. I'm not going explain the method, but the Bozcomb have no idea this is happening."

Riker leans forward and ask, "So are they still alive? Captain Picard and Cain?"

Sara replies, "Yes." She draws a horizontal line in the air and a point of yellow light follows her finger. Then, as she completes the line, a holographic panel slides down out of the beam of light. She hits a few buttons and above the conference table displays a giant 3 dimensional hologram of the Bozcomb's flag ship. The officers stand up to get a better view. Sara adds, "Kit was able to do a sensor sweep of the Bozcomb ship and update the schematics that we had on file for this type of ship."

Riker is the first to ask, "What is this blank space?" He points the front spike of the ship where a large part of the front ship is not filled in.

Sara replies, "We pretty sure that is the main cannon. They have secondary shielding that blocks our sensors." She hits another key and most of the ship fades away to reveal a ship within a ship. The image then expands. It has a large round front and is almost an egg shape with most of the base missing. This front part is flat and has a vertical cylindrical indentation. Two blue dots appear, one up high toward the rear and the other low in the in the front.

Sara explains, "This is the research section of the ship. It's totally isolated from the rest of the ship by force fields and empty space. This is where they make biological weapons and examine items of a dangerous nature. And it's where Cain and Picard are being examined."

Worf asks, "Are you planning a rescue?"

"Yes." Sara replies, and then adds, and I'm going to need you and Data to pull it off."

Immediately, Worf and Data says, "I accept."

Riker promptly ask, "Why them?"

"Pheromonic sensors," Data repies.

Sara looks over at Data and says, "I see you were studied the archives well." Data nods.

Riker asks, "If they can pick up a human by smell alone, how can you be sure they won't pick up Worf."

Sara looks at Data to see if he's go the answer to this one.

Data says, "The detectors used by the Bozcomb focus on a pheromone unique to human. Since the Etherians cannot use the nanites that give stealth, they are easily detectable."

"You knew this might happen, Cain and you," Deanna says. Riker looks at Deanna with surprise, then back at Sara.

"Yes," Sara says, "They wouldn't let you live unless they had a much more sinister plot in mind. The odds of capture were slim. But a Bozcomb Juggernaut was completely unforeseen."

"And Cain's not as unarmed as the Bozcomb may think," Deanna adds. Sara grins and replies, "It's not something they can detect."

"How is Data and Worf going to get aboard?" Riker asks.

Sara replies, "The temporal modifications that will allow your weapons to penetrate their shield can also be use to allow a federation ship to pass though. By extending your shields to maximum, the Enterprise can bring the Starwolf in behind it. We need to figure out how to get Worf, Data, and the four guardians aboard to retrieve Captain Picard and Cain," she adds.

Riker looks at Sara and ask, "So what is the obstacle of getting them aboard?" "Transport inhibitors," She replies.

Geordie asks, "What about the dimensional shifting technology?"

Sara replies, "We got the idea for the dimensional shifter from the engineer on the Hera. However, the dimensional shifting technology we created is fatal the first time."

Geordie replies, "The inverter we're familiar with is not…"

"Then we may have a way in," Riker comment.

Sara adds, "But not a way out." Riker looks at her.

Sara adds, "The nanites in Cain and Picard won't allow it. I need to reprogram Worf's and create some specifically for Data."

"Can Picard and Cain's be programmed remotely, once Data and Worf find them?" Riker asks.

"No." Sara replies.

Riker then asks, "Can you arm them with you weapons?"

"Yes," she replies, and then she looks at Data and wolf and says, "I should point out, this mission is extremely dangerous."

Data replies, "I am fully aware of the danger."

Wolf adds, "And I have a score to settle." "Data, how well do you know the lay-out?" Riker asks.

Data replies, "Extremely well. A year ago, Cain lured four juggernauts into a quantum singularity trap. When their shield went down, a probe modified to be exempt from the gravity of the singularity captured extremely details schematics of everything but the inner core. I spoke with Kit after the attack; they are almost identical in design."

"Because they never new what happen to the first four, they were probably saving this one for a special occasion," Sara adds. She then adds, "Kit will provide you with weapons."

Deanna is looking at the Blue dots and then says, "So what are they going to do to them?"

Sara takes a deep breath and says, "Invasive experimentation to figure out the nano-technology, probably an attempt to read their minds. Then they will execute them."

Riker asks, "Read their minds?"

Sara replies, "A nero-trace procedure. I'll need to talk with you and Dr. Crusher about it more after this meeting." Sara then adds, "Worf, Data, if you're ready I'll transport you to the Starworf and Kit will start your training." The two look at Riker and Riker nods to signal it's OK.

They both then say, "Ready."

Sara then looks at them and they disappear in a red flash. She then looks back a Riker and then says, "When you and doctor crusher are ready…"

Riker looks over at Geordie and Deanna. To Geordie he say, "Geordie, start working on a dimensional inverter." Then he looks at Deanna and says, "You have the bridge."

They both reply, "Aye sir." With that, they all disappear in a red flash. Geordie and Dianna find themselves back in the conference room with the chairs and conference table. Geordie nods at Deanna and heads for the door.

On the Etherian carrier, Sara, Riker, and Crusher transport into a room filled with terminals. The terminal appear blank to Riker and Crusher. Sara presses down on a panel and the panel rises to reveal a vile holding compartment. Enclosed in it is a vile of florescent pink fluid.

She takes it out and explains, "This is the nero-agent." She holds it up and continues, "Basically, it attaches to and aluminates the nervous system, with emphasis on the brain's neurons."

Riker ask, "Has this ever been used on human?"

Sara replies, "No." She then walks over to a wall terminal by Crusher and it lights up as if it knows she is there. She keys in something on the on screen keypad. An image of the human nervous system appears. She presses another key and the image of the nervous system jumps off the screen and expands into a full size 3 dimensional holographic representation and centers at the center of the room. Then a flat ring about 1 centimeter thick and 30 centimeters wide surrounding the hologram. This ring has keys and miniature displays all over the top. Sara walks over to the ring and Crusher and Riker follow. Sara presses a few keys and says, "Now this is a simulation of what happens when the nero-agent is introduced." The hologram glows a little brighter and medical data starts coming up.

Crusher's eyes quickly scan the data and she says, "This is lethal…"

"What do you mean?" Riker asks.

Crusher replies, "It intensifies the neurotransmitters and impulses, the sudden increase will overload major organs in minutes."

Sara adds, "This is typically the case with most species, but it allows the Bozcomb to image the brain."

Riker quickly asks, "Can the nanites compensate?"

Sara replies, "I'm not sure. That's why I need you."

Sara then says, "Doctor Crusher, I'm about to give you access to all the technical schematics of the nanite technology." Crusher and Riker look completely shocked. They look at each other and then back at Sara. Crusher stutters, "O…OK" Sara then looks at Riker and says, "As her commanding officer, you will need to know she has this information. But, no one else can ever know she has this knowledge. There are many races other than the Bozcomb that would do anything to get this information."

Riker looks at Crusher and says, "I understand."

Sara looks at Crusher and says, "You can discus the basics with your Captain but try not to get too detailed."

Crusher thinks for a second and says, "I understand."

Sara then says, "Computer, grant full access to the Nanite data base to Doctor Crusher." With that simple command, all the terminals light up and start displaying schematics of the nanites. Crusher looks around in wonder and then heads for a terminal. Riker, however, sees nothing but blank terminals. He looks at Sara as if he's about to ask something. Sara anticipates the question and answers, "Privacy filter, the screens and holograms only direct photons to the pupils authorized personnel."

Just then, Sara receives a communication. "Commander Knight, you are needed on the command deck," an Etherian request.

Sara replies, "On my way." She then says to Riker, "There are no doors to this room, just call out to the computer when you want to leave. To get back here, transport to briefing room five then ask to be transported to room zero." Sara then disappears in a red flash.

Riker then looks back at Crusher, who has moved to the holograph control ring and is looking at it in wonder, and says, "Do you see anything interesting." Crusher does not answer, she is preoccupied. Riker says, "Doctor."

She responds, "Sorry, just a bit overwhelmed."

Riker asks, "Is it still impossible?"

Crusher looks away from the hologram and at Riker and says, "No, I was under the impression there where thousand, maybe millions in the blood stream." Riker looks curios as she continues. "There are approximately 60 trillion nanites per person," she says.

Riker replies, "Wait, that's…"

Crusher interrupts in her excitement and says, "Exactly! Every cell in the body has a nanite!"

Riker starts to reply, "But…"

Crusher interrupts again and says, "They are phased! Permanently phased nanites replicating without interference from conventional matter but able to attach to and manipulate that matter!"

Riker draws back a little. Crusher sees this and realizes she is overly excited and says, "Sorry… This is just... incredible."

Riker smiles and says, "Just call me as soon as you determine the effects of the nanites on the nero-agent."

Crusher says, "Aye sir."

Riker then calls out, "Computer, transport me to the bridge of the Enterprise." He then disappears in a red flash. Crusher then returns to her study of the nanites.


End file.
